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SL Xpress

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Everything posted by SL Xpress

  1. One of my favorite Dune characters is...well, it's not Duncan, that's for sure.
  2. He's a top 50 player who committed to North Carolina out of high school, but it didn't work out. Pitino scooped him up on the rebound. It's not like the kid is some diamond in the rough. Everyone was recruiting this kid.
  3. Meh. It comes down to the head coach. If you have the right person in place they can overcome that lack of blue bloodedness. If you have the wrong person in place, all the blue blood in the world isn't going to elevate the program beyond their level of incompetence. A&M can't hire the right coach. I will say being a true blue blood helps keep a coach in place. But it's not a guarantee. If A&M finds the right coach they'll win. In the meantime I'll sit back and watch them flounder. Because Elko ain't it. And I like their odds of doing a bad job of replacing him with Alberts in charge of the hiring process. I don't think they're any more doomed to eternal mediocrity than Texas was from 1984 to 1997 or 2010 to 2022. Texas has more resources, a better location, a better history, and a number of other inherent advantages, but even with those advantages we couldn't win consistently doing those time periods. Yes, they're weirdos, but there's plenty there for the right head coach to tap into. It's just that it isn't so easy to find that guy or keep him once you have him.
  4. If we could target anyone Beard is serious about and just drag nuts all over him in recruiting that would be great.
  5. Helobious is the Earl Campbell of idoits. Got it. I think there's a wee chance I have a longer list than you.
  6. I don't think that position is as exclusive as you're implying.
  7. Miller likes to spread the floor and hoist 3s. To do that successfully it's helpful to have players that can make them. I know everyone wants a true point guard. I'm not sure it's in the cards for this upcoming season. Hope that Mark stays healthy. The goal was always to bring another combo guard in. This kid seems to fit the bill. If it's a Florida-Texas battle, that's pretty good company to be keeping. This is a roster being put together on the fly. I've said this before, but think of it as akin to Beard's first roster. Then hopefully we'll see things come together a little more completely in year 2. I'm assuming we're going to see a lot of evidence of a work in progress for next year's team. I also like the idea of beginning to develop relationships in international circles. But we haven't gotten the kid in yet, so we'll see what happens.
  8. 4 that I know of. SMU, Texas, Notre Dame, now Michigan.
  9. To each their own. It's just hard for me to take the Aggies seriously. I think it's a part of when I grew up. I never thought of them as an equal. Still don't. Them being down is the way it's supposed to be. I don't think of them as a rival the way I think of the Sooners. To me the Sooners are the equivalent of Carthage to ancient Rome. We need to salt the earth. So when they're down I simply enjoy it more. But to be honest, I'm not one of these people that hanker for some kind of world where our rivals are at the top of their game for these epic matchups where the good guys come out on top. I thoroughly enjoy having their fan bases completely demoralized, watching games where the outcome never seems in doubt, and it's basically obliteration of both the opponent and their fans' psyches. I think the main difference for me with the Aggies is they're so numerous now. That's what having a massive student body will do, especially year after year. And I'm in Houston. They've basically taken over the suburbs, especially in West Houston/Katy area. So there's more personal contact with Aggies than there was growing up.
  10. Have they landed them, though?
  11. How about Wheeler promising a bus for a road trip then heading off with the money? Wheeler was something else. He threatened a friend of mine on GoBig12 by posting directions to his house and insinuating that his wife being home alone wasn't completely safe. That's the first and only time I ever saw anyone get banned from GoBig12, which was famous for having a couple of interns run the board as a side gig that their job performance wasn't even measured on. Cox Communications had no idea what to do with a message board or how to monetize it. He then was at a tailgate with Katy Agnor, found out she had some skills in web development, and convinced her to partner up with him to start a new message board, which became HornFans. Similar to TexAgs, the exodus came from people who started with GoBig12. You could even argue Orangebloods came from there in a roundabout way, since Ketchum first started posting on there while interning at KEYE in Austin covering local high school sports, which he convinced staff there to include recruiting coverage. At some point the Agnors figured out Wheeler was unhinged, so they agreed to buy him out. He started his own message board, which is where the kerfuffle with the phantom bus trip occurred. He disappeared after that as far as I know. Not curious what happened to him. Then the Agnors went to a benefit dinner with Mack Brown, and he convinced them Hornfans should be a safe place for the players and their families, which led to a huge uptick in subscriptions for Orangebloods, and eventually led to the creation of Surly.
  12. Boy, there's a worthless cocksucker. He was one of the first. Just a shill through and through. I can't believe I gave him money to read his drivel. But even if the heroin is low grade, cut with a lot of bleach, an addict has to have his fix. How about Suzanne Halliburton's fabulous 55? I had a terrible conversation with her one time as she was trying to share her bonafides regarding covering recruiting, and I told her she didn't know shit about football, didn't even like watching the game, and all of her writings depended on citing someone else who knew something, which made her entirely dependent on whoever she was talking to for her opinion. Which went over like a lead balloon. But at one point in time the Dallas Morning News and the Fab 55 were important lists in terms of covering recruiting in Texas. Thankful those days are over.
  13. Not really a good comparison, IMO. Liucci is brain dead, brain washed, but he knows his audience. Holland is self serving, lazy, incompetent, while at the same time thinking he's the smartest person in any room he's in. It just goes to show how much incompetency is entrenched in this industry when he's able to make a living wage covering recruiting. And at Michigan, of all places.
  14. Boy does he love his frappucinos. Why do I know this? Why should I ever know this about someone covering recruiting? Why post about this shit? I've met with a lot of recruiting gurus over my lifetime. My meeting with Holland was by far the worst one I've ever had. I openly cheered the day he left covering Texas recruiting. Worthless.
  15. If I get Aggies by themselves they're normal people for the most part. It's when they're in a pack that things can get strange. What I do feel convicted on is that the world is now spinning in its rightful orbit college football wise. May it last the rest of my lifetime. It won't, but I'll relish it for as long as it does last. Keep bumping. I love Sooner tears so much more than Aggie tears, and I find Aggie tears delicious.
  16. It's pretty fun, actually.
  17. I just think it's entirely excessive to offer him 25 different times. Once seems sufficient.
  18. As far as kickers, this guy might be available: Andrew Boyle - Football - University of Oregon Athletics He's been injury prone, which is not ideal. Not the kind of track record Texas is looking for. He did hit a 50 yarder last year. He's also the one who made the successful onside kick against Ohio State, the second successful onside kick of his career. He went 2 for 4 last year on field goal kicks, but he only came on for long yardage kicks. I know him, so that's why I'm mentioning him. He has one year of eligibility left. He's told me he's made it from beyond 60 yards in scrimmages. Nothing wrong with his leg. He was recruited by Mike Leach at Washington State then left after Leach went to Mississippi State. He's going up against last year's starter again for playing time. He'd be cheap, in any case. Not that kickers are ever making a whole lot relatively speaking.
  19. "Texas isn't going to run the SEC the way they did the Big 12." Oh, we're running it.
  20. Yeah, I doubt it's strictly over the table. Some of these are relatively substantial amounts, though. Certainly low 6 digits in some cases.
  21. Regardless, it's happening. Let me know when we get the first deportation. I do understand that's a heck of a risk/reward ratio, but it's cash in hand versus uncertain enforcement.
  22. What are you talking about? I'm saying I know international athletes making bank on collective NIL deals when they're not supposed to be. I'm not saying whether it's an NCAA issue or not. I'm saying whoever is responsible for enforcing no NIL for international athletes is not doing any actual enforcement. My guess is it's an IRS deal because it's taxable income and an international student doesn't have a social security number. There's an overall lack of enforcement in college athletics. It's like if all the traffic laws in the country continued to exist, but the police no longer felt empowered to enforce them. Sure, many people would try to obey the law because that's the only way to have a civil society, but some people would disregard the laws at their convenience, and those examples would then empower more people to disregard them, until the system broke down. I'm saying that's what is going to happen in college athletics. That is what is currently happening right now.
  23. Oh, another thing that cracks me up is this idea international players aren't receiving NIL funds. They absolutely are. I'm not sure who is supposed to enforce that to make sure it doesn't happen, but they aren't.
  24. Here is my view on it. While external rules/systems can quite successfully tamp down value in a market - or conversely, push value in a market that wouldn't otherwise have it at that level - at the end of the day market forces are still going to play out. Sports are interesting from an economic point of view, because unlike other enterprises, the end result isn't necessarily profit/loss and market/revenue growth. There's also a matter of winning on the field, which brings its own reward above and beyond any economic value it brings, which can also be substantial. The value of anything is the price two parties are willing to agree to. It's not an algorithm. It's not determined by an expert. Or the state. It fluctuates depending on an incredible number of factors. But perceived value is paramount. The perceived value of a player who is seen as the missing piece to a championship level team isn't easily quantified. Think about how much Minnesota overpaid for Herschel Walker. Or Cleveland for DeShaun Watson. Think about if an executive for a shoe company could go back in time and bid against Nike for Michael Jordan's endorsement. How much more would they have been willing to pay? The numbers are all very fuzzy, and because they're very fuzzy, there's a wide range that can be justified for an organization when going after an outlier. And while outliers are...well...outliers by definition, they're also what sets market prices. In college sports there's no salary cap. The House settlement isn't one either. People want it to be. People are pretending like it's going to serve that function. But in the end it's a temporary stopgap so that athletic departments can feel like they have this thing somewhat under control. But it's quickly going to be like that scene in the Batman movie where Bane asks the city councilman if he feels in control. That's why so many people in college sports are heading to Washington for some legislative relief. They know they have their finger in the dyke and it's bound to spring leaks all over the place. To repeat, there's no salary cap. There's no realistic enforcement mechanism. There's not an intrinsic tie to profit/loss in terms of how much people are willing to pay. There are too many stakeholders to fashion a functioning cabal that would artificially suppress labor costs. Whatever labor cost relief schools experience in the short term is going to quickly be run over like a speed bump as the groups with money they're willing to spend to help their alma mater win at the highest levels...spend it. We think of the Oregons, Ohio States, and Texas of the world as setting the market, and maybe in the aggregate in terms of overall team payroll they do. But there are plenty of alums at schools like Texas Tech, SMU and other places who see an ability to spend their way to a competitive position in ways that weren't necessarily possible previously, and they're willing to let go of a certain percentage of their wealth to do so. And Katy bar the door if people like Larry Ellison truly get involved in NIL.
  25. I believe there's 5 scholarships left. We're just not going to go above 13.
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