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Texas recruiting notes 2019


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(Jeff Howe) 3 Things I Know, 3 Things I Think: QB, O-line recruiting

Summer conditioning is underway for Tom Herman and Co., recruiting continues to go at a steady, successful pace with the staff earning four total verbal commitments over the past two weekends and David Pierce’s squad is getting ready to host a Super Regional against Tennessee Tech, the first at UFCU Disch-Falk Field since 2014. With all of that in mind, there are “3 Things I Know, 3 Things I Think” about what’s happening on the Forty Acres right now.

I know...

1. Johnson coming up short at Elite 11 isn’t a big deal

The list of 11 quarterbacks who made it out of the Elite 11 Finals in California and will head to The Opening Finals in Frisco later this summer doesn’t include Roschon Johnson. The Port Neches-Groves product and the first verbal commitment of what’s setting up to be another banner recruiting cycle for Herman and the Longhorns didn’t make the cut but, for a few different reasons, that shouldn’t matter when determining Johnson’s value as a prospect. For starters, Elite 11 is by no means a foolproof way of projecting college football’s next great quarterback. It’s one of many tools used in the process of evaluating the most difficult position on the field, not the be-all, end-all of how quarterbacks project to the next level.

Furthermore, while Texas has had dual-threat quarterbacks like Jerrod Heard(entering his third season as a wide receiver) and Sam Ehlinger (the man with the inside track to start for Texas in 2018 ahead of another former Elite 11 quarterback in Shane Buechele) perform well in the competition, a non-contact setting where feet and instincts aren’t measured the way they are with pads on takes away a lot of what makes Johnson a special playmaker with the ball in his hands. The bottom line is if Johnson is going to succeed or fail at the college level, how he performed in the Elite 11 Finals won’t be the determining factor one way or the other.

What Herman should hope to see is Johnson taking the same path as J.T. Barrett, a former Elite 11 quarterback who Herman rode to a College Football Playoff berth and a national title in 2014 as the offensive coordinator for Urban Meyer at Ohio State. Barrett wasn’t one of the top 11 quarterbacks in 2012, but the Wichita Falls Rider product with a skill set and intangibles that resemble what Johnson brings to the field had arguably the best college career of anyone from his Elite 11 class.

Of the quarterbacks who made the final 11, only Cal’s Jared Goff (the No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft) has a collegiate resume that can touch what Barrett did over four seasons with the Buckeyes. A three-time Griese-Brees Quarterback of the Year (best quarterback in the Big Ten), a three-time first-team All-Big Ten performer and an All-American who owns 25 Ohio State records and a 38-6 record as a starting quarterback, Barrett (who Ohio State targeted while seemingly simultaneously stopping its pursuing Tyrone Swoopesduring the 2013 recruiting cycle) fits Herman’s pro-spread offense the way Johnson appears to based what can be gleaned from the staff’s evaluation of him prior to taking his commitment last summer and how things unfolded for Johnson during a monster junior season.

Texas has had some hits landing Elite 11 quarterbacks — most notably Vince Young, but Chance Mock and Garrett Gilbert had some measure of success in college even if neither played at a consistently elite level on the Forty Acres. The Longhorns have also had several misses — Heard moved positions, Swoopes wound up in a specialty role and both Jevan Sneadand Connor Brewer did little to nothing in the program before transferring.

The jury is out on Buechele and Ehlinger, two quarterbacks with some skins on the wall who might not fit what the Longhorns want or need to be offensively the way Johnson does. While it would have been nice for the burnt orange faithful to follow Johnson in Frisco, it’s clearly not the end of the of the world that he’s missing out on the event.

2. Landing Tyler Johnson helps Texas in an ongoing tackle crisis

Quarterback is far and away the toughest position on the field for college coaches recruit and evaluate. The next position in the pecking order, both in terms of evaluation and recruiting at a high level, might be offensive tackle. I would put it No. 2 behind quarterback due to the fact that there are only two sure-fire ways to ensure long-term health on the edges at the collegiate level — a must considering how defensive coordinators continue to put a premium on speed and athleticism over bulk in order to defend spread offenses with space playmakers on the outside and talented, multi-faceted quarterbacks pulling the trigger.

It’s getting harder and harder to find high school tackles who are athletic enough to handle speed athletes on the edge, physical enough to consistently take care of business in the run (good luck finding elite-level tackles who are comfortable in a three-point stance) and have the mindset to work to get better now that the competition is unlike any they’ve seen before from a size and talent standpoint. That’s why when a prospect like Walker Little, the 2017 five-star offensive tackle from Houston Bellaire Episcopal who’s now at Stanford, comes along, losing him is a blow because any backup option will likely need a year or two in a player development program to figure out what’s there with the crop of top-flight tackles having been picked over by that point.

Texas has had a problem recruiting offensive tackles for the last decade because the Longhorns have failed more often than not to go one of the two ways a program has to in order to solidify the tackle positions. That’s to either land top-tier prospects like and give them the tools they need to hit their ceiling or look for guys like Connor Williams who have the raw tools and project to be possibly elite players down the road. Aside from Williams, who was clearly a good take and panned out on his way to becoming an NFL draft pick, Texas’ tackle takes over the last decade have either not panned out because of injuries (Paden Kelley, Josh Cochran) or discipline-related issues (Kennedy Estelle), they kicked inside (Kent Perkins, Mason Walters) or they just couldn’t cut the mustard.

That’s changing under Herman with the Longhorns showing the ability and willingness to travel both roads in search of tackles. Texas snagged a pair of intriguing tackle options for down the road in Reese Moore and Christian Jones in 2018. They’re on campus right now and will be joined at this time next year by 2019 five-star prospect Tyler Johnson on Conroe Oak Ridge, who for my money is the best pure tackle prospect Texas has landed since J'Marcus Webb in 2006 (Webb played one season at Texas, transferred to West Texas A&M, was a seventh-round pick in the 2010 NFL Draft and played in 71 games over seven seasons in the NFL).

I wrote recently how the staff can start turning the page along the offensive line now that Williams has broken the unsavory 10-year streak of not having had a lineman drafted at a time when Herb Hand has come along to hopefully be the teacher and developer of talent the Longhorns need to get things in order. Getting a commitment from Johnson is a big part of that process, so too is the Longhorns closing on Houston North Forest four-star tackle Javonne Shepherd, a recruitment where Texas appears to have the edge.

One or two tackles isn’t good enough when you’re talking about fixing a gap in the talent pipeline that’s gone unresolved for the better part of a decade. Texas can’t get in a bind like the offense was last season when Williams went down and there was nothing in the ballpark of a reliable option to step in for him. When Texas, as a program, gets to the point where the loss of one player doesn’t cripple an entire side of the ball, it will be a sign that the Longhorns have arrived at a point being able to tout talented depth up and down the roster. That hasn’t happened in a very long time, but it’s slowly starting to take shape within a position group where the Longhorns needed it in a bad way for far too long.

3. something about baseball

I think...

1. Taking Card right now is a good move

Forget that Hudson Card, the first verbal commitment earned by Herman and the Longhorns for the 2020 recruiting class, only attempted 87 passes for Lake Travis last season. The rising junior will now be the man pulling the trigger on a full-time basis for the Cavaliers, a program that’s produced a Heisman Trophy winner and No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft (Baker Mayfield), the reigning Big 12 Offensive Freshman of the Year (Charlie Brewer of Baylor) and an Ohio State signee (Matthew Baldwin) among its recent quarterbacks. There’s been enough of a buzz about what Card can be behind center that when combined with his athleticism showing in spades on a season’s worth of film from his sophomore season where he played wide receiver, it makes all the sense in the world for the Longhorns to begin building the 2020 class around him.

If the staff has evaluated Card enough to believe he’s Chase Daniel or Jarrett Stidham — two future elite-level college quarterbacks who, like Card, played wide receiver early in their high school careers due to veteran quarterbacks occupying the starting job ahead of them — then it’s a good take on that notion alone. The kicker is that it’s still early enough in the process and Card has position flexibility that if the staff needed to take another quarterback, there’s still plenty of time to properly evaluate and target a second prospect at the position.

By the time the 2020 quarterback sets foot on campus, the ideal scenario would be for Sam Ehlinger to be entering his senior season as a multiple-year starter and one of Cameron Risingor Casey Thompson to be the backup quarterback. It’s unrealistic to expect both 2018 signees to be on campus at that point given the nature of the position, but the Longhorns will also hopefully have Roschon Johnsoncoming off of a redshirt year. As long as Card and any other quarterbacks the Longhorns bring in among the rising junior are coming into a program with a healthy quarterback room and thus won’t be rushed to see the field, there’s no harm in the staff getting their guy now before he’s really proven himself at the high school level.

2. True freshmen will push for spots in the two-deep this summer

Herman noted before the end of spring practice that it’s not impossible to gain a better position on the depth chart once preseason practice begins, but the focus early in camp shifting from player evaluations to winning games makes it tough. That doesn’t seem to apply to the newcomers who weren’t on campus for spring practice and based on the early returns from their summer conditioning work, there are going to be more than a few true freshmen who force their way onto the field. It’s going to be hard to keep the talented group of defensive backs off of the field, especially considering how well each of them was said to test in the weight room over the last week. Anthony Cook, B.J. Foster and Caden Sterns each made positive impressions during spring practice and at the very least the early-arriving trio along with Jalen Green, D’shawn Jamison and DeMarvion Overshown could give the Longhorns some impact bodies to use in the kicking game.

Moro Ojomo, Joseph Ossai and Mike Williams being mentioned as prospects who have turned heads early in summer conditioning is good. The Longhorns can use depth where both Houston-area products and the Louisiana native will provide it along the interior defensive line and off of the edge as a pass-rushing presence. It would be nice if the Longhorns can redshirt a fair number of the 2018 signees and start to develop a true talent pool of young players. That said, it’s more imperative for Texas to begin to stack talented depth up and down the depth chart, which likely means getting a decent number of the newcomers who are physically ready to go prepared for action.

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5 hours ago, Richter said:

I just assume that 75% of the posters on this thread are 9.95er socks.

Surly is the battleground of a massive 9.95er civil war where a bunch of sock accounts post each others content in an attempt at sabotage and slander each other to win the subscriber base. This is some game of thrones shit.

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2 hours ago, Elmer_Fudd said:

Bragg is getting accepted to Stanford.  Why the fuck is mom so in love with them?  Dad and Granddad are the Texas fans.

When the mom wore the Stanford sweatshirt to one of the camps, I asked her "Do you want Branson to go to Stanford?"  Her response was something like "Why wouldn't a former valedictorian, New Mexico player of the year, state record holder in discus, 3 sport full scholarship college athlete who graduated summa cum laude want her son to go to Stanford?" or something like that..... 

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4 minutes ago, Train wreck said:

When the mom wore the Stanford sweatshirt to one of the camps, I asked her "Do you want Branson to go to Stanford?"  Her response was something like "Why wouldn't a former valedictorian, New Mexico player of the year, state record holder in discus, 3 sport full scholarship college athlete who graduated summa cum laude want her son to go to Stanford?" or something like that..... 

She sounds charming (though I'm sure any parent of a kid that highly recruited would be pretty over those kinds of questions).

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6 hours ago, rickyspub said:

Outside of Leal, I can't really think of anyone else who just committed out of the blue to another school. We thought we were in good position with Williams and Richardson going into this cycle, but it wasn't like either was lock, especially considering our 2018 DB haul, when they committed to aggy. There are guys who have seemed to be leaning in our direction but now are seemingly leaning elsewhere, but that is par for the course in recruiting. 

Not necessarily committed, but lead for and are the team to beat. It just seems like outside a few guys, we have the “lead” and then it evaporates into thin air the next day or soon after. 

Leal

nana 

bragg. 

Maybe it’s not as bad as I think but it sure does seem like it.

 

Edited by Texashorn19
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7 minutes ago, Train wreck said:

When the mom wore the Stanford sweatshirt to one of the camps, I asked her "Do you want Branson to go to Stanford?"  Her response was something like "Why wouldn't a former valedictorian, New Mexico player of the year, state record holder in discus, 3 sport full scholarship college athlete who graduated summa cum laude and is wearing a $5,000 suit want her son to go to Stanford? Come on!" 

 

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9 minutes ago, Texashorn19 said:

Not necessarily committed, but lead for and are the team to beat. It just seems like outside a few guys, we have the “lead” and then it evaporates into thin air the next day or soon after. 

Leal

nana 

bragg. 

Maybe it’s not as bad as I think but it sure does seem like it.

 

It's not as bad as you think.

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1 hour ago, Elmer_Fudd said:

Ya'll can take this FWIW, but a poster on 247 who claims to know a coach on the Crandall staff asked about Bragg and says Bragg is leaning Texas.  Also said 1 parent is pro Stanford and other pro Texas, which we already knew.

He's going to Stanford 

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47 minutes ago, Texashorn19 said:

Not necessarily committed, but lead for and are the team to beat. It just seems like outside a few guys, we have the “lead” and then it evaporates into thin air the next day or soon after. 

Leal

nana 

bragg. 

Maybe it’s not as bad as I think but it sure does seem like it.

 

Satya's sock?

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1 hour ago, Elmer_Fudd said:

Ya'll can take this FWIW, but a poster on 247 who claims to know a coach on the Crandall staff asked about Bragg and says Bragg is leaning Texas.  Also said 1 parent is pro Stanford and other pro Texas, which we already knew.

Any chance  we can keep Warehime out of their bathroom?

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1 hour ago, Train wreck said:

When the mom wore the Stanford sweatshirt to one of the camps, I asked her "Do you want Branson to go to Stanford?"  Her response was something like "Why wouldn't a former valedictorian, New Mexico player of the year, state record holder in discus, 3 sport full scholarship college athlete who graduated summa cum laude want her son to go to Stanford?" or something like that..... 

 

1 hour ago, texifornia said:

She sounds charming (though I'm sure any parent of a kid that highly recruited would be pretty over those kinds of questions).

 

1 hour ago, Tony Soprano said:

That's a pretty cocky lady.

 

1 hour ago, GotThatFire said:

Cocky, proud moms are awesome 


Fairly certain that his state record holding discus-throwing mom is the cocky one on the left.

590b450fbaf3f.image.jpg?resize=541,720

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2 hours ago, Texashorn19 said:

Not necessarily committed, but lead for and are the team to beat. It just seems like outside a few guys, we have the “lead” and then it evaporates into thin air the next day or soon after. 

Leal

nana 

bragg. 

Maybe it’s not as bad as I think but it sure does seem like it.

 

Leal is the only one. Nana and his family was all ND, then we made play and got him interested. There was a brief period where we were trending, but then he did his officials and picked ND. Bragg has been a Stanford/Texas battle from the beginning. You need to recalibrate your 'lead' meter a bit. I would say all three have had periods where they 'leaned' Texas and it certainly seemed like we were the leader for Leal, but Bragg and NaNa were always closer to toss ups. To me Leal and to a lesser degree Banks are the odd ones. I think we let Banks' line go a bit slack and he felt slighted. Leal is the weird one and doubt it's because he likes secretly likes glory holes and jizz jars.

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