Bam Bam Sam

Wanted to mention that Sark did not "start cleaning house with creative" and did not let Lange or Turnquist go. First, creative department doesn't report to Sark, they report to DPP. Second, both guys are very ambitious and talented individuals. While they both love sports, this part of the creative industry does not leave much room for career growth after you get to where they're at. Working directly for a team is typically much longer hours, much larger volume of work, and more work to oversee than other jobs outside of a sports program at their level. Matt didn't enjoy doing some aspects of his role that are necessary, but he was viewed very favorably in the department anyway. If they wanted to stay, they could have. They're both moving on to jobs that will allow them to have more time with their families, less volume, and more income. Sark and Billy view their roles as an important part of the program and recruiting. so I have faith they will hire people who are hungry like Lange and Turnquist were and not hire just anybody. As of right now I'm not sure if their replacements are lined up or if that's something they'll wait until Spring or later for. Moving on, I am excited to see what the recruiting trio of Banks, Choice, and Gilbert will be like. It can't be undersold how excellent a hire Gilbert was by Sark, he has been an absolute force for Texas this season. I am hoping Choice brings Texas an opportunity to build on that.

RB Tahj Brooks out with injury.

"That's, like, one 6-star, man!" Let's not pretend it's hard to make Nahlin sulk and jump off the cliff. IT was ready to pull the plug on Sark when the staff wasn't recruiting all of their perfect prospects in fucking April, then they jumped back on board once they had their nap and a juice box. FWIW, I don't think anyone should outright trust any Texas beat writers right now, at least not with a good dose of skepticism. Piggy-backing off of these remarks. I haven't heard much of Jimbo referencing EOT against Texas (from my end, at least). If so, it's hopefully because he's learned he can't cast those types of stones while he's coaching A&M. The biggest EOT slingers that I've heard of continue to be Alabama. The rest of these problems can only be invalidated by getting shit done on the field (what a revelation). I also liked the comment about perception. How successful programs recruit against each other is not how pretty much every program, regardless of their success, is currently recruiting against Texas. Much of the battles between elite programs come down to "let me show you why we can do more for you here instead" (and obviously payment for qualifying prospects). To contrast that with what Texas is dealing with currently, every school is spinning pretty much the same negative recruiting pitch outlined above. If every negative recruiting pitch can be successfully generalized to the point where the majority a kid will hear all sound the same from multiple different sources, it's going to have a stronger effect, regardless of the validity of their pitch or the resume of some of our staff. I have zero clue if Texas can reach back out to Sexton, or if they will even try. I will say it's pretty standard practice by any program to tell a kid 'sorry we're full' when they've got someone they like better in the class. @closetojumping's take regarding confidence and confirmation earlier is apt. Unfortunately for Texas, Cam gave them confirmation when he wasn't confident about it himself. I can lay out what I heard from Texas as far as how things went last weekend on Cam's visit. Monday morning, they felt like he was committed. Texas validated his commitment status early Tuesday morning. I don't know shit about what happened between when my people received that confirmation and today. I can tell you Texas is not happy about losing him this way. Hopefully they're upset enough to make them stop being so relaxed regarding the commitment status of what's now been two targets that have seemingly pulled the rug out from under them. Regardless, this is an outright loss on a prospect that had committed to Texas just days ago and had been made a priority by Flood after offering. There's not a reason to spin it as anything else, and any pessimism regarding Flood I'll admit to being warranted at this point. We've all seen good on-field coaches in the past that can't recruit or can't close, and everyone probably knows how it works out. At best, you become ND, starved of the talent you need to get over the hump. At worst, we're hiring someone else in 2 years and proclaiming them the savior of the program or the nail in the current HC's coffin. At the very least, try not to let the losses make you all jump off the ledge before a down of football has even been called by this staff.

Sark and Glasscock's mentality seems to be 'pursue the best talent and if you can't get them on campus, condense the board, and expand the search.' Texas and many other programs stopped pursuing Cooper. Texas isn't as high on him as recent reports make it seem. It's not. It's June. You're 6 months early on the Texas OL battered wife syndrome. Take a fucking shot and enjoy the momentum.

Every high school recruit is required to pass a high-contrast design class prior to enrolling to a collegiate institution.

It’s nothing particularly awful, at least to my knowledge. He’s a kid who flashed a lot of potential early but plateaued in his development, so programs slowed down their pursuit. Not saying it’s the right choice or wrong one. Just seems to be the consensus.

There are plenty of reasons for a school to tell a kid to move on, many do, and Texas is justified in doing so here. Lewis may not be the last if the other receivers currently being evaluated for similar issues do not look at this as a wake up call.

Their sources are good. The staff just isn't adhering to their particular vision for the class and is moving a lot of different directions at once, which I guess hurts their feelings since they've established themselves in the industry as accurate, infallible talent evaluators.

This is what I imagine is the beginning of the reality with upcoming NIL. The SEC doesn't want it to happen because it will allow schools who they traditionally don't have to compete with for prospects (when it comes to bags) to challenge them. However, that does not mean schools will cease all under-the-table compensation once it arrives. Some kids will surely take the up-front guarantee as opposed to a lofty promise (for some prospects) of potential NIL earnings. Regardless of a kid's confidence in themselves, or even their family's, there will still be those who want to take the safe money. There will still remain recruiting uncles and trainers who want a piece of the pie as well, and those individuals are unlikely to get that piece from a player's NIL revenue. This is where I believe Evan's situation falls. While Evan is the literal perfect pitch for a kid to capitalize on their NIL, he is still being pulled away from a program that has all the resources to help him accomplish that due to others around him who want a cut.

Ja'Quinden's very respected up there by his teammates and the coaches, and his word has a lot of weight compared to other former players. He is a good leader, and people gravitate towards him. The information regarding Abor and Duncanville isn't entirely accurate. While what Coach Terrell said is true, Texas has been in contact with Abor. This isn't to say that Vogel doesn't know anything - he can only write what he's been told by Abor and Duncanville. You all can read between the lines for the rest. Texas hasn't lost Duncanville. Regaining stable inroads there will be an uphill battle for sure, though. I'd keep a heavy eye on one of their 2023 kids.

No.

"Hughes' model" was designed with staff and put in working order before Hughes got bounced by compliance. That model will remain in tact, as requested from the top. A DPP, Two ADPPs. Some full time staffers. A good force of support staff interns, some of which I am guessing will be "volunteers" to ensure they can get the labor hours the coaches are pushing. Each coach assigned a region in Texas and some have additional regions OOS, as well as their respective position groups nationally. They'll also each have a group of evaluators dedicated to helping them find and evaluate prospects at their position and region. It's sounds similar to what I've heard former Saban assistants speak of. I don't know which of Texas' coaches have which regions in or out of state. I do know that Glasscock was hired and fit into the system Hughes started, not hired to bring his own. For background on Hughes, he spent 4 years as an intern under Saban's front office staff while he was a student at Alabama. He's done it their way, or close to it, ever since from a structural perspective. Sark had that while in TTown, I assume his desire to keep it is a top priority for him based on his quick hiring of one who knew the ins and outs of the model and then hiring a backup that could be slotted into it. Regardless of how true to form it compares to Alabama down the road, it has already been described as quite an upgrade.

This is a complete guess, but maybe the 9.95ers may have whiffed so badly on L. Hullaby's recruitment similar to why they were wrong on Xavion Alford for so long. To summarize, the beat writers' assumption that he was a lock to A&M (after his near commitment to LSU), annoyed him and he went along with it hoping they'd stop pestering him and his family while he figured out where he really wanted to go. The media settled until they were made aware of the news that he was going to Texas shortly before his announcement, which I'm guessing is when he notified A&M's staff he had committed to us. LJ Johnson did something similar, which I had hinted about prior to this last season. Obviously that recruitment wound it's way up and down into A&M's favor in the end.