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Texas recruiting notes 2019


bigup2dahorns

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9 minutes ago, Casual Encounter said:

What are you basing your information on? I thought he was going to sign but it would be kept a secret until he announced. Then again, I haven’t felt the desire to read everything in this thread for the past 48 hours. 

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7 minutes ago, Harvdog said:

It cracks me up that these kids who haven’t played a down of college football act like they are the 2nd coming of Barry Sanders. Business??  Riddle me this Noah....are you planning to live in Pittsburgh or Philly after you finish college?  The odds of you playing in the NFL are slim. So when that doesn’t work out, what “business” are you planning to do?  Work in coal or steel?  My guess is you will want to move back to the south when you are done with football and the PSU alumni base isn’t as large as the Texas base. But hey, I hear Altoona is nice this time of year, so enjoy your 4 years in Happy Valley and hopefully you are “distracted” by finishing 2nd and 3rd in the Big 10. 

The Pedophile State University has a very large alumni base, it’s just that they like coaches who rape young boys and administrators who support those activities. 

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24 minutes ago, Harvdog said:

It cracks me up that these kids who haven’t played a down of college football act like they are the 2nd coming of Barry Sanders. Business??  Riddle me this Noah....are you planning to live in Pittsburgh or Philly after you finish college?  The odds of you playing in the NFL are slim. So when that doesn’t work out, what “business” are you planning to do?  Work in coal or steel?  My guess is you will want to move back to the south when you are done with football and the PSU alumni base isn’t as large as the Texas base. But hey, I hear Altoona is nice this time of year, so enjoy your 4 years in Happy Valley and hopefully you are “distracted” by finishing 2nd and 3rd in the Big 10. 

*quietly* Penn State is comparably ranked (59 vs UT at 49 per USNWR) and actually has a very slightly larger student body with alums in every major American city

*loudly* But their alums have been shockingly awful about the pedophilia stuff, they're gross

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1 hour ago, JFKFC said:

Success is college football is driven by may factors. One of the biggies is "explosive plays." Late in the season, one of the TV color guys during one of our games said something along the lines of the only two teams in the entire country without an offensive play over 50 yards was us and Rutgers. It is amazing we won as many games as we did, considering this stat. Young isn't an explosive plays kind of guy, and I have my doubts about KI. The one running back I had high hopes for in this regard just announced he will transfer. I hope this young man from Georgia who just signed has some big play ability. We desperately need it. 

Common denominator: Meh.

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9 hours ago, Spider2YBanana said:

He's good enough Bama made a legit offer to him, and not one of their here's an offer come to our camp bullshit, either. If Bama wanted this kid, we should all want him. He's been my second favorite recruit since he committed, I still can't believe we got him. I thought it was just bullshit that people were saying he's a Texas lean without an offer, and sure enough he gets the offer and never waived. Do. Want.

Brown never had a committable Bama offer. 

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1 hour ago, RGBIII said:

It looks like Bru didn’t sign an LOI but I’d imagine that he signed financial aid paperwork with the school he chose so he can enroll early. I wonder if both schools are allowed to contact him still or if there is a strict no contact rule like when they sign an LOI. Anyone know?

I think it reverts to the old, pre-NLI system. He can sign grants-in-aid with multiple schools, but once he signs one only a school with his signature on a grant can contact him.

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21 minutes ago, Fud said:

It wasn't just the fumbles with Young this year. His vision looked pretty bad. 

We need to coach him up though, even if we land a grad transfer, because we'll surely need him 

I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see him being more than a short yardage/goal line back. The next Cody "Face Full of" Johnson. 

Let's see if Drayton can get it turned around with him.

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1 minute ago, UDontKnow said:

I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see him being more than a short yardage/goal line back. The next Cody "Face Full of" Johnson. 

Let's see if Drayton can get it turned around with him.

I saw flashes his freshman year.  Didn’t see much out of him this year.  Maybe he was down because he dropped to 3rd on the depth chart, but I think he’s got enough juice to at least match or get close to Watson’s output this year, especially if our run blocking improves.  

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8 minutes ago, BigVegasHorn26 said:

I saw flashes his freshman year.  Didn’t see much out of him this year.  Maybe he was down because he dropped to 3rd on the depth chart, but I think he’s got enough juice to at least match or get close to Watson’s output this year, especially if our run blocking improves.  

He just came off as more of a liability with fumble issues.

 

on another note, is glass man Kirk Johnson out of eligibility? 

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5 minutes ago, UDontKnow said:

Let's see if Drayton can get it turned around with him.

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Under Drayton we keep seeing instinctive runners regress. That fucker needs a bus ticket to Anywherebuthere, USA before he ruins Ingram as well. 

Young was far better as a Freshman when he was aggressive and sudden. This year Drayton's got him doing fucking calculus instead. Fuck that guy. 

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I thought it was tough to get a read on Young this season.  Seemed like whenever he played it was late in the game with the win in hand and the defense knowing we were running out the clock.  Unless Brown really impresses in camp, I think Young will rise to No. 2, at least for the first few games of 2019.

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(Ian Boyd) Inside the Gameplan: My 5 favorite defensive signees

Everywhere around the country, defensive coordinators are having to make tough decisions about what to look for in personnel, particularly at linebacker. The results of those decisions look increasingly different than they did 5-10 years ago and the ongoing trend towards smaller, faster, and more coverage-savvy defenders is only going to intensify in the coming years now that the strongest programs in the country are embracing the spread passing attack. Of course that’s all to Texas’ benefit, because it’s been a long time since it was possible to play great defense in the Big 12 with personnel chosen for their run-stopping ability and now they won’t be punished in any hypothetical posteason opportunities for orienting their recruiting in that direction.

The trick to beating 2018 Alabama, for instance, has a lot more to do with holding up in coverage than being able to take on a lead block. Oklahoma’s hilarious trend towards base personnel not only failed to offer them anything against Georgia last year but their ineptitude when playing anything other than a base 4-3 is about to cost them again when they face Tua Tagovailoa and friends.

There’s two good ways to try and defend modern spread attacks and both of them share some similar features in terms of choosing personnel. The first is to continue to play aggressive run-stopping schemes like Texas’ tite front paired with aggressive run fits from the OLBs, but to get faster everywhere so that when teams use RPOs or other schemes to get the ball in space the defense can recover. Texas’ handling of bubble screens over recent years is a good example, they’d often send the nickel to outnumber the run and trigger the bubble screen, which would then face a big corner like Davante Davis hemming in the WR’s block while a fast safety like Brandon Jones closed in from the hash.

The other route is to drop everyone back and dare opponents to beat you in the box, running on your DL. North Dakota State dominated spread offenses at the FCS level with this strategy and it’s more or less how Alabama tends to play it as well. At times North Dakota State did that with base 4-3 personnel but their LBs tended to be pretty quick and Alabama does this from nickel and dime sets that field LBs that can run better than 4.6 in the 40.

A good, modern defense needs to hit two out of three on the following methods to stopping spread offensive tactics.

Method 1: Don’t have glaring weak spots. 

Spread offenses get the ball to a defensive weak spot in the same way that water flows to a leak. If you have someone in the defensive backfield who can’t handle playing in space then the offense is going to figure out how to create a formation where he does exactly that, and often against a particularly nasty space player. Texas had dozens of formations this year with its base 11 personnel package and half of them were designed to make someone cover Lil’Jordan Humphrey who had little to no hope of successfully doing so.

Method 2: Do have strong spots that can cover for others.

If you have one or two weak spots they can always be covered up, provided competence, assignment soundness, and versatility, if you have one or two guys that can hold up in isolation or command extra attention. For instance, the LB who isn’t the fastest to the ball might hold up if the DL in front of him are commanding double teams or the cornerback is so good that the safety behind him can drop down alongside or help over the top. Of course, ideally the LB doesn’t need both but that’s the gist of this. Defenders that can take away opposing strengths without needing help are invaluable for stopping the spread and negate the need for everything to fall perfectly right with a roster that can always field 11 exemplars of good, sound play in space.

Method 3: Be able to attack the offense and flip the script

This is a lot trickier to pull off because spread offenses are designed to read defenses and get the ball out quickly. Perhaps the nastiest thing that Art Briles brought to the game (X’s and O’s wise) was an offense that could find and attack opponents with vertical passes in which the QB was dropping back and almost immediately throwing to a spot. The traditional defensive measure of having a blindside edge rusher trying to work around a tackle is typically next to useless against that type of play. The best “edge player” in the Big 12 of the last two years was Ben Banogu, a guy who’s most devastating move was an inside tackle-end stunt that he executed with a quick DT named Corey Bethley that could result in an inside pressure from Banogu.

Anyway, if you can field attacking pieces in the form of nasty pre-snap disguises from versatile defenders, free-running blitzers that target weak spots in protection, or the very rare DT who lives in the backfield every snap then in THAT event you can actually attack offenses effectively enough that you needn’t always be perfectly sound or elite in the defensive backfield.

Texas’ main means of arriving at these three methods is to field nickel and dime defenses with freak corners and highly versatile safeties, then utilizing Todd Orlando’s different protection-busting blitzes with the LBs to get quick pressure up the middle that can thwart any offensive design. Without landing players that can make those methods work, nothing else really matters. Here’s five guys that can help Texas build some formulas in the coming years for realizing at least two out of three methods in a given year.

No. 5 Tyler Owens

The ceiling here is Brandon Jones with ball skills. Owens dominated this season at Plano East after starting to put everything together as a 6-2/200 pounder that has run a 10.4 in the 100m and recently learned that it’s fun to hit people at speed.

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If you’re going to play the nickel aggressively against the run than you need serious speed behind that position to help recover when teams throw on RPOs or play-action, which is why Owens can be invaluable.

It’s very difficult to combat the spread without being able to put people on the field that are both fast and effective open field tacklers. Owens is a near lock to be exceptional in both regards and also has some promise as another DB (Caden Sterns) who can make plays on the ball in the air and make the deep field a no fly zone for opposing passing attacks. The path to defensive excellence that Texas is pursuing is one in which they can flood the field with guys that can run, tackle, and play multiple spots. That means that there’s a need both for numbers at the safety position as well as some standouts, which is Tyler Owens.

No. 4 Caleb Johnson

One of the most prized players you can recruit now is going to be the space-backer who can read the triangle well enough to play as an inside-backer. Even in dime personnel you can’t get away with dropping a stiff defender between the hash marks. That’s prime real estate that spread teams are running crossers or option routes in. If that guy is an effective blitzer? Even better.

Gary Johnson was essentially this sort of player, although he leaned pretty heavily on his freakish athleticism and didn’t realize his actual potential with skills as either a coverage defender or a blitzer. It was very common for the sorts of well-timed insert blitzes that saw T.J. Watt post 11.5 sacks at Wisconsin or Steven Taylor get 18.5 sacks in two years with Orlando at Houston generate a scenario in which Gary Johnson got nothing. Johnson’s 5.5 sacks as a senior playing in this scheme behind Charles Omenihu and Chris Nelson was an important underachievement that hasn’t really gotten enough attention in the discussions of Texas’ woeful third down defense in 2018.

Caleb Johnson is an exciting addition because he adds immediate help, he adds long-term help (currently a RS freshman), and he does so with method 2 and 3. At 6-1/215 he’s a space-backer that excels at running to the ball and erasing space but he’s also accustomed both to doing so from inside the box AND executing auto-blitzes and timed insert blitzes that helped him generate 5.5 sacks as a freshman at Fullerton College.

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With Johnson Texas is trading out Gary Johnson for someone with less speed but a better command of the position, which given Johnson’s absurd acceleration is a no-brainer deal.

No. 3 T’Vondre Sweat

The featured position up front in this defense is arguably the nose tackle, who gets to shoot the backside gap against Big 12 centers trying to climb to a LB and guards that have to get over and stay in front of him.

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If you’re an extra quick defender, the tite front nose tackle position makes you a nightmare because it gives you a good angle and matchup to shoot the backside gap. If you’re extra powerful, it does the same. Check out that TCU guard trying to get over and maintain some semblance of control over Chris Nelson’s path to the backfield. In either event, the other team is left to have their center and guard very intentionally commit to the double team or risk giving up run-killing penetration in the A-gap, which now frees up the LBs.

T’Vondre Sweat has a little of both AND has already mastered the Chris Nelson belly dance to boot. He might be able to play the 4i position, which gains similar advantages but has to mitigate a greater distance from the mesh between the QB/RB and trying to beat an OT in pass protection. His most likely future is slowly gaining extra size and strength before emerging down the line as a nose that makes run defense too easy for Texas, and makes the difficult calculations about getting extra coverage and speed in the backfield simple.

No. 2 Kenyatta Watson II

The plan for the middle of the defensive backfield can generally be to load up on as many physical athletes as possible so that there’s always guys coming off the assembly line with a few years of instruction on anti-spread schemes. Playing strong up the middle requires a lot of know-how and after an increasingly high baseline of athleticism is met, then big picture conceptual understanding becomes more valuable than sheer speed.

Even a player with Tyler Owens' speed can be chewed up if he doesn’t know where the ball is going. The field is still plenty big and offenses aren’t putting too many slowpokes on the field. Solving for the problems that teams present is as much about getting versatility in the middle of the field as it is matching athletes. You want to be able to prevent offenses from knowing where they have one-on-ones and where there will be help. It’s possible to do the same outside at cornerback at times but generally it’s much, much easier if you have some freaks there that can hold up when the QB inevitably finds them isolated on his WR.

A defense that can’t ask their cornerbacks to play some man coverage and hold up without a safety over the top can run out of bullets in a hurry against teams hunting matchups with the run and pass in the middle of the field. Kenyatta Watson II is Texas’ attempt at adding another CB to the roster that can shut down his side of the field, or at least hold up without giving up loss-ensuring production. He’s got the highly coveted size at 6-2/187 but he also has the necessary footwork and twitch to avoid getting behind and inhaling exhaust.

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The hope here is that Texas will have another player they can utilize like Kris Boyd to press up bigger receivers that thrive on getting a free release against off coverage to go win jump balls (David Sills IV) or to stay over the top on a burner (Jalen Reagor).

No. 1 De’Gabriel Floyd

Floyd is your script-flipper, at 6-2, 240 with a 35.6” vertical leap you want this guy attacking on the insert blitz and killing opposing plays before they can get started.

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His HS team amusingly would use him regularly as a robber like Texas does with their joker position and he’s pretty solid in space. That’s not where his value would be for Texas. What Texas wants is for teams to have to worry about this guy reading their run play and getting someone out to him on time without asking the center to handle T’Vondre Sweat without help. They want teams worrying about whether the RB picking him up in an interior gap will even make a difference in whether or not he gets to the QB. Floyd is the sort of violent and explosive LB that this scheme is designed to weaponize but that Orlando has yet to really have in Austin. Malik Jefferson was getting close but didn’t offer the same kind of pass-rush that Floyd can bring. It may take a while longer than people would like for it all to come together for Floyd, though perhaps it’ll be much quicker than normal, but he has all the tools to become the kind of attacking piece up front that changes the game.

With these five signees Texas is going to be better positioned in the future to make a good run at all three methods to playing high level, anti-spread defense in upcoming years. If you can do that in today’s game, you’re at a major advantage both in Big 12 play and now nationally as well.

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8 hours ago, CravenTaters said:

Do any of these reporters get “fact checked” to make sure they aren’t spewing BS?

Like did EJ really talk to Evans, or is he just making shit up to pump clicks on a good yet disappointing day? I’d be curious if half their statements like “heard he’s leaning X,” and “I spoke with Y source” are even true.

No, it's a whole industry made up of made up "sources".

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2 hours ago, JFKFC said:

Success is college football is driven by may factors. One of the biggies is "explosive plays." Late in the season, one of the TV color guys during one of our games said something along the lines of the only two teams in the entire country without an offensive play over 50 yards was us and Rutgers. It is amazing we won as many games as we did, considering this stat. Young isn't an explosive plays kind of guy, and I have my doubts about KI. The one running back I had high hopes for in this regard just announced he will transfer. I hope this young man from Georgia who just signed has some big play ability. We desperately need it. 

Jake Smith says "Hi"

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23 minutes ago, texifornia said:

It's so unethical when we *checks notes* tell recruits to Google a school's football program

Du3k_gYU8AAPpF5.jpgDu3k_8jVsAAg0Lv.jpgDu3lAZ4VAAAFX9B.jpgDu3lAxUV4AIi5lg.jpg

Hhahahaha..."class act down in Austin, TX"???

Baylor, here's the thing...you're suggesting that UT lacks "class" because we are trying to get a football player to come to school in Austin. Your entire university was complicit in supporting an extensive culture of rape. 

Comparisons of "class" is something you guys probably want to sit out. 

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2 hours ago, Snotrocket said:

Tex, I value your input and really like your level headed approach to recruiting.  But your take on Young is off.  If you want more playing time, you have to earn it.  At any school.  He should be ready to kick some ass when his number is called.  I like Young and expect a rebound season next year but he's going to have to earn it.

Agree with this, don't forget it was Danny Young that iced the Tulsa game when he trucked that safety and ripped off a 40 yard run. The guy is an average back who has a well rounded skill set, but an average back running against an above average line can still be effective, see Katy. 

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If you do not want schools to tell recruits you run a criminal organization where rape, steroids and even murder were at times condoned by your major coaches well, there is something you can do about that. 

Stop fucking raping people and covering up murder. But by all means, get mad at us for telling a recruit to look it up. 

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TFloss:

Spoiler

 

Per 24/7, they haven't heard that ATH Bru McCoy signed yesterday but he has been accepted by both Texas and USC.

Coach Mehringer has spoken with the famiy in the last 48 hours and he's still scheduled to announce his decision at the All-American Bowl on January 5th.

/

Also from 24/7, they expect OL Isaiah Hoofkin of Fort Bend Dulles to sign his LOI before the early signing period ends.

Things are trending positively for Texas, but it isn't a slam dunk.

If you want to know how weird this recruitment is, the Hoofkin family claimed they weren't aware of all the problems Baylor has had in the past.

 

 

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3 minutes ago, NoName said:

TFloss:

  Hide contents

 

Per 24/7, they haven't heard that ATH Bru McCoy signed yesterday but he has been accepted by both Texas and USC.

Coach Mehringer has spoken with the famiy in the last 48 hours and he's still scheduled to announce his decision at the All-American Bowl on January 5th.

/

Also from 24/7, they expect OL Isaiah Hoofkin of Fort Bend Dulles to sign his LOI before the early signing period ends.

Things are trending positively for Texas, but it isn't a slam dunk.

If you want to know how weird this recruitment is, the Hoofkin family claimed they weren't aware of all the problems Baylor has had in the past.

 

 

Yeah I don't believe that for a second. How could the fam not know about Baylor's past?

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5 minutes ago, NoName said:

TFloss:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Per 24/7, they haven't heard that ATH Bru McCoy signed yesterday but he has been accepted by both Texas and USC.

Coach Mehringer has spoken with the famiy in the last 48 hours and he's still scheduled to announce his decision at the All-American Bowl on January 5th.

/

Also from 24/7, they expect OL Isaiah Hoofkin of Fort Bend Dulles to sign his LOI before the early signing period ends.

Things are trending positively for Texas, but it isn't a slam dunk.

If you want to know how weird this recruitment is, the Hoofkin family claimed they weren't aware of all the problems Baylor has had in the past.

 

 

That is absolutely astounding that they did not know of Baylor’s issues. 

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I'm just going to piece together a Bru McCoy conspiracy theory real quick.

1. DeGabriel Floyd's tweets suggested he had confidence Texas was landing someone else and he's been recruiting Bru hard.

2. There are reports that Bru favors Texas, but USC is more comfortable because of the location and people he knows.

3. Tom Herman said that he expected to land 1 or 2 more LOI's THIS signing period.

4. Bru apparently is sending his LOI this signing period.

Conclusion:  Bru is already in

 

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Just now, 6th Street said:

Yeah I don't believe that for a second. How could the fam not know about Baylor's past?

If they're not sports fans its possible they didn't pay any attention to the Baylor stuff.   I had family that didn't have any idea what I was talking about when I brought up the Art Briles stuff.

Wasn't Hookfin 'late' to football?  If thats the case his parents may not be football fans or involved in the sport side of his recruitment.

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1 minute ago, fellside said:

I'm just going to piece together a Bru McCoy conspiracy theory real quick.

1. DeGabriel Floyd's tweets suggested he had confidence Texas was landing someone else and he's been recruiting Bru hard.

2. There are reports that Bru favors Texas, but USC is more comfortable because of the location and people he knows.

3. Tom Herman said that he expected to land 1 or 2 more LOI's THIS signing period.

4. Bru apparently is sending his LOI this signing period.

Conclusion:  Bru is already in

 

The one or two more signings is likely a reference to Shepherd and Hookfin. Bru is signing with USC. 

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10 minutes ago, NoName said:

TFloss:

  Hide contents

 

Per 24/7, they haven't heard that ATH Bru McCoy signed yesterday but he has been accepted by both Texas and USC.

Coach Mehringer has spoken with the famiy in the last 48 hours and he's still scheduled to announce his decision at the All-American Bowl on January 5th.

/

Also from 24/7, they expect OL Isaiah Hoofkin of Fort Bend Dulles to sign his LOI before the early signing period ends.

Things are trending positively for Texas, but it isn't a slam dunk.

If you want to know how weird this recruitment is, the Hoofkin family claimed they weren't aware of all the problems Baylor has had in the past.

 

 

They weren’t aware?  Do they lack access to TV media electricity or other humans?

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20 hours ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

I remember a time when I was in school and Texas got ONE Top 250 national recruit.  (I think it was Lovell Pickney.)  And we used to milk Deer Park High School for all it was worth.  (Not much )

I'd love for us to do better, but I also recall the not-so-good days.

I wish I hadn’t thrown out my old recruiting lists because I’d give you plenty of names that were Top 250 from every year around Pinkney’s time. We weren’t recruiting very well in the Top 100, but we always got a handful of Top 250 guys.

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