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Texas recruiting notes 2019


bigup2dahorns

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3 minutes ago, TankedBevo said:

Hopefully Sanders to go along with Cain but there's probably just north of 0% chance that happens 

Probably right there. But oh god, this board would erupt in ecstasy if it ever happened. I believe EJ is the only one pushing the narrative that Sanders is visiting this summer.

I think the more realistic second back to Cain would be the kid out of Oklahoma, Marcus Major. 

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13 minutes ago, UDontKnow said:

Probably right there. But oh god, this board would erupt in ecstasy if it ever happened. I believe EJ is the only one pushing the narrative that Sanders is visiting this summer.

I think the more realistic second back to Cain would be the kid out of Oklahoma, Marcus Major. 

I know they're acting friendly now, but I doubt Cain wants to continue to play second fiddle to Sanders at the next level. 

Assuming Cain is in/will be in, we need to start coming up with RB2 prospects. I'd be good with King Dourue if it works out. If Texas offers Doerue and Aggy lands Spiller as expected, I could see it happening. 

Edited by billfromlaketravis
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2 minutes ago, billfromlaketravis said:

I know they're acting friendly now, but I doubt Cain wants to continue to play second fiddle to Sanders at the next level. 

Assuming Cain is in, we need to start coming up with RB2 prospects. I'd be good with King Dourue if we can get him. If Texas offers Doerue and Aggy lands Spiller as expected, I could see it happening. 

If the theoretical scenario arose that Sanders wanted in at Texas and Cain wanted to forge his own path, I would be fine with that. You could still get King Doerue in that scenario. Our old friend Jeff Traylor has been visiting Doerue lately.

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1 hour ago, Bigpoppapump said:

Haha, and pretty much 50/50 for td on reception.

 

And because of punt returns, kickoff returns, ints returned for tds, two fumbles recovered for tds, and blocked punts returned for TDs, he actually scored 71  tds on 33 receptions. 

Edited by Hornius Emeritus
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EJ after dark: Will Texas take two tight ends?

— Texas landed a commitment from Arizona tight end Brayden Liebrock earlier this week. So what does that mean for the tight end position? According to a source, Texas still plans on taking two tight ends this cycle. Temple’s Jared Wiley named Texas in his top three on Thursday, and we are hearing that he is nearing a decision. Right now, Texas seems like the clear frontrunner in his recruitment.

— Miami tight end commit Larry Hodges said he is firm on his commitment to the Hurricanes. However, he is planning to make some official visits. Hodges listed LSU, Oklahoma and Texas as potential destinations. Hodges has been in contact with UT tight ends coach Derek Warehime and is intrigued by the Texas program.

— Four-star outside linebacker Rian Davis has been pretty quiet about his recruitment. Davis is taking the process extremely slow, does not have any official visits set at this time and will likely make a decision closer to signing day. Davis seems high on SEC schools like Alabama and Georgia, but he is open to returning to the Lone Star State, where he played his junior season. Davis is taking a closer look at bot Baylor and Texas and hopes to visit soon.

— Four-star Mansfield Legacy defensive back Jalen Catalon released his Top 8 on Thursday. Spoiler alert: Texas made the cut. This comes as no surprise as we are continuing to hear that the Longhorns are the team to beat in this recruitment. Texas safeties coach Craig Naivar has been working overtime with Catalon, and he loves the idea of playing both football and baseball in Austin.

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11 hours ago, billfromlaketravis said:

Gunnell to Zona is looking more likely. CBs coming in and Aggy mods basically conceding. 

Is Gunnell pretty much solely motivated by depth chart? It seems like he only wants to go somewhere that can essentially promise him to start right away. tOSU is the one outlier there but pretty much every other school he seems to really be considering falls into that category. 

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14 minutes ago, UT Lawnghorn said:

Is Gunnell pretty much solely motivated by depth chart? It seems like he only wants to go somewhere that can essentially promise him to start right away. tOSU is the one outlier there but pretty much every other school he seems to really be considering falls into that category. 

Maybe not Okie State with Spencer Sanders 

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TFB Open Post: http://texas.thefootballbrainiacs.com/2018/05/open-post-weekend-may-11th-13th/

 

– With the commitment of Brayden Liebrock, Texas’ 2019 class is 50% out-of-state with three in-state and three out-of-state. Furthermore, Liebrock definitely won’t be the end of the out-of-state commitments for Texas, as Texas could rack up anywhere from two more to seven more commitments from out-of-state prospects. This got me thinking about the fact that the Longhorns seem to be more willing to go out-of-state to get players than in years past. Since 2012, the Longhorns have averaged 5.57 players in their class who do not hail from Texas. If we bring that into the last two coaching staffs, it’s pretty obvious that there is a larger focus out of state than earlier this century, as more than 26% of each class over the past five years has been from out-of-state with 2015 being the peak at 10 players from out-of-state. Compare this to the Mack Brown years where he averaged 2 out-of-staters per class.

However, was this due to Mack just being in love with Texas recruits and Texas recruits alone? It appears to have more to do more with necessity. When you compare the Longhorns previous three years’ total win percentage vs the percent of talent from out-of-state in that year’s class the point becomes much more clear. For example: the combined winning percentage of 2003, 2004, and 2005 was 89% and the percentage of OOS talent in the 2006 class was 9%, whilst the combined winning percentage of 2012, 2013, and 2014 was 59% and the percentage of OOS talent in the 2015 class was 34%.

There are plenty of other factors at play and the following graph is far from statistically sound, but I still feel it provides a good tool to visualize the correlation between the perceived trajectory of the program and the reliance on out-of-state talent.

NqwYI1m.png

Even under Mack Brown, he had to start off by taking a good number of guys from out-of-state until he secured the results to lock down the state.

Now, two questions remain…

MeMdN8Q.gif

“No-hahaha-no. This isn’t going to be forever…” But it probably won’t go away entirely either.

As you can see above, when Texas is at it’s peak, there is minimal need to go out-of-state. However, Texas still had about 2-4 guys from out-of-state a year. If Tom Herman were to ever get to that point, Texas would probably see a similar dominance in-state, yet Herman has shown a willingness and ability to step outside the border and take some talent. We’ll see just how great that willingness is after this season, but it’s there.

The second question is, “Can Tom Herman go out-of-state without ruffling the feathers of the easily angered Texas High School Football Coaching community?”

We saw Charlie Strong get in trouble for going out-of-state for recruits at times. What makes Tom Herman any different?

I think @Unofficial Longhorn put it best:

Herman has the existing equity to make OOS moves, whereas Strong was borrowing with no existing credit history.

When Charlie Strong went out and got the “Florida 5” and the other five out-of-state recruits, he was a guy going immediately out-of-state without having built prior relationships with teh Texas High School Coaching community. This gave them the idea that he wasn’t interested in Texas kids. And Charlie wasn’t good at being buddy-buddy or politicking, so whether or not the claims were valid didn’t matter. Add to this the fact that Strong came into a dysfunctional athletic department with a front office and donor-base that wasn’t exactly a fan of the hire (not because he was black), and high school coaches who weren’t a huge fan of the hire as well. Charlie Strong took a step forward to ensure he got some (seemingly) great talent when he had stood himself at the edge of the TXHSFB cliff.

Tom Herman may not originally be from Texas, but he may as well be. Herman has coached fifteen out of his twenty-one year-long career in the Lone Star State. He has built up strong relationships with the high school staffs around the state and continues to keep them steady by allowing them free access to the practices and flexible access around the facilities. He knows the correct people to know in these circles and has built those relationships out. He has played this game correctly all the way down the line, and for that he’s given himself plenty of wiggle room to play around with going out-of-state and meeting 7on7 coaches. – (Will)

May 8th Shhh:

– Two hours after the news of Brayden Liebrock broke, we were graced with some more good news.

The player connected with the most recent shhh, I’m told, has moved his timeline up and may actually announce late May/early June.

So, look for something to potentially drop in the next three weeks but we’ll continue to follow it. – (Super K)

Elijah Higgins: For a while it seemed like Elijah Higgins ending up at Texas was a matter of when, not if. Over the past month, we’ve heard that this was no longer the case.

I spoke with a source earlier today who tells me that Texas is actually behind both Texas A&M and Stanford and that Higgins is set to visit Stanford this month.

It’s hard to know whether this will hold up. Fortunately, Texas is within striking distance on a couple big wide receivers in Makiya Tongue and Bru McCoy. I plan on speaking with Makiya in the very near future. – (Super K)

– One of my favorite Wide Receiver’s I’ve seen in 2019 is Notre Dame Prep (AZ) Jake Smith. Smith cut his list down to two recently, with Texas and USC as the lone schools remaining.

While it isn’t surprising to see Texas and USC as the finalists for him (I’ll break them down in a second) I wasn’t sure if he was going to narrow it down this soon. I say that because some other schools were trying to get him to extend the process a little bit. Schools like Texas A&M, Ohio State, and Notre Dame were wanting to get him on campus this summer for official visits. But, now it just looks like he will take the two officials to USC and Texas.

This is an interesting one to predict. As I know Texas fans hate the term “dream school” as a lot of recruits call Texas their dream school, and end up picking other schools. But, USC was the school Smith dreamed of playing at while growing up. And, Texas is the school that really opened his eyes on the visit and is giving him a ton to think about. It’s usually the opposite with the Longhorns.

Smith would like to make a decision this summer. And it sounds like he just about has his official visit dates locked in for USC and Texas. The official visit to USC will be May 19th, and Texas will their shot on June 2nd. Right now I feel good about Texas’ chances and the fact that he was willing to narrow his choices down to two this early in the process makes me feel like he somewhat knows what he wants to do. But this one isn’t over yet, and will likely come down to the official visits. – (Andrew)

Jalen Catalon just dropped his top 8. As we have stated in the past, Texas is one of the front runners here, so they obviously made the top 8.

Jalen Catalon will be committing January 31st, so don’t expect anything to happen anytime in-between then an now. However Texas is still in a very good position here. – (Will)

Edited by Machinator
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40 minutes ago, Leanderman said:

  Why are we talking about decommiteed gomers on this topic board? I know its May, but come on, are we that bored?

If you can't see how where Gunnel goes could affect Texas recruiting, then you probably shouldn't be attempting to be thread police. It's the doldrums of the offseason, this thread will wander some at times. 

Edited by UT Lawnghorn
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Power rankings of where we want Gunnell to end up out of the schools that appear to still be in it

Arizona

LSU

Ohio State

Oklahoma State

A&M 

 

The recent Arizona trend gives us our best case scenario 

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13 minutes ago, Fud said:

Power rankings of where we want Gunnell to end up out of the schools that appear to still be in it

Arizona

LSU

Ohio State

Oklahoma State

A&M 

 

The recent Arizona trend gives us our best case scenario 

Honestly, if Sumlin is able to pull Gunnell. And he comes in and is pretty good as a true freshman I could see Sumlin doing his typical 8-4, 9-3 seasons which would be awesome for Arizona. And then Cucko stumbles to 6 or 7 wins for a couple years... imagine how the sheep will react to that. 

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1 minute ago, theaveragejon said:

Honestly, if Sumlin is able to pull Gunnell. And he comes in and is pretty good as a true freshman I could see Sumlin doing his typical 8-4, 9-3 seasons which would be awesome for Arizona. And then Cucko stumbles to 6 or 7 wins for a couple years... imagine how the sheep will react to that. 

Arizona has Khalil Tate this season.

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23 minutes ago, Fud said:

Power rankings of where we want Gunnell to end up out of the schools that appear to still be in it

Arizona

LSU

Ohio State

Oklahoma State

A&M 

 

The recent Arizona trend gives us our best case scenario 

Is Arkansas no longer even a remote possibility? Because I would place them well above Arizona in my personal list. 

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6 minutes ago, theaveragejon said:

Honestly, if Sumlin is able to pull Gunnell. And he comes in and is pretty good as a true freshman I could see Sumlin doing his typical 8-4, 9-3 seasons which would be awesome for Arizona. And then Cucko stumbles to 6 or 7 wins for a couple years... imagine how the sheep will react to that. 

A&M has many built-in excuses they can fall back on: SEC, Jimbo needs to get "his guys", Uncle Red bought off the refs, etc.

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1 minute ago, SydneyCarton said:

Is Arkansas no longer even a remote possibility? Because I would place them well above Arizona in my personal list. 

TSRH. I don't want to root for Piggie ever, but how can you not want to see Gunnell with Chad, just for the Aggy anguish? It would be it's own roller-coaster of agony every season. 

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4 minutes ago, golfclap said:

TSRH. I don't want to root for Piggie ever, but how can you not want to see Gunnell with Chad, just for the Aggy anguish? It would be it's own roller-coaster of agony every season. 

It's honestly all I want for Christmas.

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11 minutes ago, golfclap said:

TSRH. I don't want to root for Piggie ever, but how can you not want to see Gunnell with Chad, just for the Aggy anguish? It would be it's own roller-coaster of agony every season. 

Unfortunately, Aggie Chad is kind of average at recruiting 

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21 minutes ago, theaveragejon said:

Honestly, if Sumlin is able to pull Gunnell. And he comes in and is pretty good as a true freshman I could see Sumlin doing his typical 8-4, 9-3 seasons which would be awesome for Arizona. And then Cucko stumbles to 6 or 7 wins for a couple years... imagine how the sheep will react to that. 

SEC wins count twice as much as PAC 12 wins.  Advantage aggy,

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11 minutes ago, Elmer_Fudd said:

Wiltfong has an update on Bru McCoy in regards to Texas.

Looks like he'll OV here for the USC game:

In a recent interview with 247Sports, Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei five-star athlete recruit Bru McCoyraved about his April unofficial visit to Texas. The Longhorns were already a contender coming into the visit. Tom Herman and company are one of the favorites coming out.

"The Texas visit was great," McCoy's father Horace told 247Sports this week as the trip made a lasting impression. "We are just taking everything all in, in hopes of making an informed decision and not an emotional one. Texas made it compelling and special for sure. They are definitely serious about their football down there."

McCoy is looking at returning to Austin for the USC game the weekend of Sept. 15. That would be an official visit.

The other contenders for the 6-foot-3, 215-pound McCoy include USC, UCLA, Oklahoma, Oregon, Colorado and Washington. He'd like to take all five officials before announcing a college decision in early January.

The industry-generated 247Sports Composite ranks McCoy as the nation's No. 2 athlete and No. 17 prospect overall. The 247Sports Top247 Player Rankings slots him higher, as the No. 1 athlete and No. 4 recruit in the land. McCoy could play receiver or linebacker on the next level.

Edited by Cashdaddyblumpkins
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OB War Room - J.Smith, T.Sanders, M.Hicks, Z.Williams, N.Pickering

(From Suchomel)

Top national wide receiver prospect Jake Smith announced this week that he’s down to a final two of Texas and Southern Cal. That development, from what we’d heard, has been in the works for a while but Smith made it official on Monday with a tweet.

The electric pass-catcher (see for yourself here if you haven’t watched his videos yet) will take spring official visits to both schools before arriving at a decision, which should come fairly early in the summer. I mentioned in my column on Tuesday that I thought Texas would win out based on some things I had heard. After talking to a couple other people later in the week, I feel even better about UT’s chances.

Obviously, with the two visits still to come, there could be some movement in this one over the next couple months, but I really like Texas’ chances of landing Smith after he completes those trips. Of note, he’ll visit USC next weekend and the Texas visit will be the first weekend of June. Getting the last shot would seem to be another positive development for the Longhorns’ chances.

******

Not a lot has been written about five-star running back Trey Sanders because he doesn’t do many interviews at all, but his name came up this week in a conversation I had and it sounds like the Longhorns are very much in the mix for the IMG standout.

Sanders, a one-time Alabama commitment, isn’t saying publicly which schools are standing out, but behind the scenes I’ve heard there’s been some discussions of just how strong his interest in Texas is. Obviously, the first step for Texas will be to get him on campus for a visit, which should happen, but the word floating around people who cover recruiting in the state of Florida is that the Longhorns are a much bigger player in this one than most people realize.

Florida is also heavily involved and the Gators did recently land his brother, UmsteadSanders, as a preferred walk-on - he’s currently at Raymond (Miss.) Hinds C.C. – so that fact can’t be overlooked, but expect Texas to be heavily involved in this one based on some things I heard this week.

Sanders is ranked No. 11 on the Rivals100 and is the country’s second-rated running back, just behind Devyn Ford.

******

Rivals250 defensive end Marcus Hicks has schools from all over America chasing his commitment, and the Texas Longhorns are one of the programs showing extensive interest. On Wednesday, Texas defensive line coach Oscar Giles made his second spring visit to Hicks’ school, and the Wichita (KS) Northwest standout said Giles is one of the reasons the Longhorns are on his watch list.

“It’s just their coaches, coach Giles,” Hicks said when asked what stands out about the Longhorns. “He’s a really cool guy. He’s been texting me, hitting me up a lot. I saw him at my school, didn’t get to talk to him, but it was cool seeing him watching us work out in our morning weights program. I just like how strong our relationship is.”

Hicks said he’s realistically considering about 10 schools, but Texas is playing a bit of catch-up in this one behind Oklahoma and Michigan. Hicks plans to release a top five by the end of summer and told me Texas should make the cut.

The 6-5, 240-pound Hicks said Texas is really stressing to him that he would fit well into the Longhorns’ defensive scheme, and he feels he could make a quick transition if he does wind up choosing Texas.

“They just think that I’d really fit into their defense because I’ve seen some of their film. They put my film and their film side by side. I’ve really been doing exactly what they’re doing, so it’s really cool seeing that if I go there, it would be pretty much no change,” Hicks said. “I’d be used to what they’re doing.”

Hicks’ father had told me they were working towards setting up a June official visit to Texas, but with such limited spring visits available, this one may have to wait until the fall.

******

Giles was busy on Wednesday, also checking in with recent UT offer Zach Williams, out of Little Rock (AR) Robinson. Williams visited Texas for the Orange-White game and picked up an offer during that visit. He said the Longhorns are high on his list.

“Texas, I really like them. They have good facilities, good coaches, a good team, good atmosphere,” Williams said. “Coach Giles came today and said he loved what he saw, keep up the good work.

“Just the sheer size of the campus and facilities (stood out). I thought Texas was nice, but I didn’t know it was thatnice. That really amazed me. Coach Giles, everybody else, it seemed like they really cared about me as a person and as a player.”

Williams holds close to 25 scholarship offers and said he’s keeping an open mind as new programs continue to enter the picture. He hopes to narrow his focus pretty soon, and said Texas will likely make his cut.

“I’d say (Texas chance’ of staying in the mix) are pretty high,” Williams said. “It’s a nice place and they seem to care about me, so they’re pretty high.”

As is usually the case with prospects in the state of Arkansas, the Razorbacks will be a major factor.

“They’re high too,” Williams said. “But I’m going to look at all these schools, find the best fit. But they’re high up there too.”

The timing of this one could be interesting. Williams said he and his father want him to start taking official visits when school gets out at the end of May. He’d like to make a commitment in late summer, so it might be beneficial for schools to try to bring him in during the spring window, if possible.

The Texas coaches have done a good job in this one over the last couple months to quickly climb Williams’ list.

“They’re telling me I would fit perfectly with their scheme, and they’re rooting for me. They’re just trying to make me feel good, which they have,” Williams said.

******

Rivals250 defensive end Nathan Pickering announced a top-10 in late April that included the Longhorns. When I caught up with him recently, he said the Longhorns will “most definitely” get a visit at some point, but Texas is facing some tough SEC competition for the Seminary (MS) product so we’ll see if that visit comes to fruition.

“Texas is a great school. It’s a great school. It’s a great environment, they have a great team,” Pickering said. “I love the way they practice, love the way they coach. I believe they could develop me to play in the NFL some time.”

Oscar Giles continues to work on this one and Pickering said he likes the message he’s heard.

“He’s a great coach. Everything he’s telling me, he’s telling me what I like to hear. Not just because I need to hear it, because it’s the truth,” Pickering said. “So I feel he can develop me as a defensive lineman to be in the NFL someday.”

In a recent Rivals.com update, Pickering said he’d for sure take visits to USC, LSU and Alabama. Texas will obviously try to get one of his last two, but Pickering might be a player who will be a tough pull from the Southeast.

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