Fumbles

I know we're still hanging around the rim with some guys, but we've got NSD in the books and 22 signees (plus 2 transfers so far). Let's take stock of what we got, starting with the offense. QB - Arch Manning Misses - Don't care, got Arch. Best player on the board at the most important position in football. I haven't watched film on the other top QBs in this cycle to know what we're missing out on because I don't care. Arch is fantastic prospect and he would deserve his ranking if his name was Archquavious Jones. RB - Cedric Baxter, Tre Wisner Misses - Rueben Owens I love Cedric's film and I love that we pulled him out of Florida. Dude is a power runner with top end speed and some nice shake for his size. I can't believe there are recruiting services who don't think he's the best running back in the country. Tre Wisner is a nice complementary piece with a lot of versatility. Owens would have been an even better lightning to Baxter's thunder, but he also seemed like a headcase who didn't want to share carries or the spotlight. If I had to choose between Owens and Baxter, I take Baxter every time. WR - Johntay Cook, Ryan Niblett Misses - Jalen Hale, Jaquaize Petteway, Jaden Greathouse, DeAndre Moore (maybe?), Ja'Kobi Lane (maybe?) I'm excited about Johntay Cook and think he's one of the very few guys who could contribute as a true freshman depending on how the WR room develops in the offseason. He's a polished route runner, has great speed, and his film shows solid hands. Niblett is a super athletic project who has all the tools to become a great slot receiver. Two great recruiting wins against some very stiff competition. The problem is both Cook and Niblett are under 6 feet and neither shows much of an ability to win contested balls on film. Enter Jalen Hale. Go watch his junior season highlights: Jalen Hale - Longview - 2021 Junior Season Highlights (247sports.com). Nearly every catch is him adjusting to poorly thrown balls, high-pointing, and fighting for the catch. It's a skill that is woefully missing from this recruiting class and the WR room on campus right now. Hale would have been the perfect player to round out this WR class and, in my opinion, is the worst miss of the cycle. We really could have used him. Jaden Greathouse is a really well-rounded player, good routes, good hands, good size, decent speed, and has a lot of nasty blocks on film. I'm not gonna dickride him like I did Hale, but I like his game and wish we would have made him more of a priority. Petteway is a good player, but between Cook and Niblett I think we have his skillset covered in the class. I'm happy with who we got, but I think the misses really hurt here. Maybe we can make up for it with Moore or Lane, but neither of those guys is bringing what Hale has to the table. TE - Spencer Shannon, Will Randle Misses - Duce Robinson (maybe?), Ka'Morreun Pimpton Spencer Shannon's film shows a technically competent blocker with a great frame for physical development. And he caught a few balls on slant routes for like 40 yards. Hopefully he eventually wins the Geoff Swaim Memorial Extra Blocking Surface Award for providing outstanding value to the team that no one cares about. Will Randle only makes sense to me as a take if he was necessary to secure Arch Manning. If we just needed a guy with Will Randle's skillset, there are 10 dudes as good or better than him in Texas every year. Pimpton and Robinson would have been nice additions, but I'm not losing sleep over either of them. I would have been perfectly happy with Shannon as the only TE take this cycle. OL - Jaydon Chatman, Trevor Goosby, Payton Kirkland, Connor Stroh, Andre Cojoe Chatman is an excellent player that's a solid take in any class. Trevor Goosby is a lean, athletic player with a great frame that has the skillset to play outside. His upside is Connor Williams/Sam Cosmi. His downside is the fact that we have to hope he becomes that level of player instead of already being that level of player. Payton Kirkland is a massive human being that plays as tough as he looks, but I'm not sure he has the feet to play tackle at the college level. Compare Kirkland's tape to Kelvin Bank's senior season: SENIOR SZN HIGHLIGHTS - Kelvin Banks jr highlights - Hudl. 00:35, 3:10, and 4:40 show some beautiful pass protection and at 1:03 there is a literal murder caught on film. Now, I know we can't expect everyone to be Kelvin Banks, but I think the comparison is useful to see Kirkland's shortcomings so far. There's not a whole lot of tape on Kirkland pulling, getting to the second level, finding guys in space, or stonewalling in pass protection. He's just lining up and mauling dudes half his size. Maybe we see more of his game in senior season tape but it's not on HUDL so I haven't seen it. I love Connor Stroh's senior highlights: 2022 Senior Season Highlights - Connor Stroh highlights - Hudl. He's consistently finding guys in space and at the second level to block. There's also some nice pass protection moments in there at 2:39 and 5:45. He's still got a long way to go regarding footwork and technique but I could see him taking the Christian Jones developmental path. Andre Cojoe is a poor man's Payton Kirkland and he's carrying a lot of bad weight in his senior tape. You need a lot of faith in Kyle Flood to see Cojoe as a take. Honestly, this is a bit of a disappointing haul. There are excuses: 2023 was clearly a down year for offensive linemen in Texas, the 2022 OL class was so good that it scared off elite linemen who wanted quick playing time, the coaches were looking for developmental guys to sit behind the 2022 OLs, etc. I also can't recall us "missing" on anyone as the coaching staff locked the OL guys down pretty quickly and seemed to focus on other areas. I wish we had made finding a surefire offensive tackle more of a priority, even considering last year's class. We're a few key injuries/portal entries away from the dark times again, we need to keep the cupboard as stocked as possible. Overall Thoughts on the 2023 Offensive Class Listen, we got the number 1 recruit/top QB in the class, top RB in the class, the best WR in Texas, and a lot of useful toys to go along with them. Could I piss and moan about the WRs we didn't get or that the OL class isn't loaded with five stars? Sure. And I kinda did already. But this is still a really good class and, when viewed in context with the 2022 class, addressed our roster needs very well.

No. We’re not even allowed to respect their decisions right now.

I'm sorry, what would you call losing recruits to shitty schools? Bad luck? I'm not shouting that the sky is falling, I think we'll get ours. But I'd like to see something tangible to indicate the coaching staff has a plan at WR. Excuse me if losing recruits and doing nothing in the portal fails to inspire confidence.

So why did we ever offer guys like Cozart and Wilson in the first place? Why offer anyone other than 5 stars? This is pure spin. The staff is having problems recruiting WRs because our passing game sucked this year and we're being effectively recruited against. When we take 4 WRs in the next class, the spin will be "only loser programs that need mercenaries rely on the portal. Everyone knows you build teams through recruiting."

Yeah, at this point I'm tired of hearing the excuses of why we don't actually need any of these guys we're not getting. Niblett flipping to Houston? Recruiting is about the portal now, who cares. Jalen Hale? Staff backed off at the end. Petteway? Momma never liked us. Brown? Always eyed LSU. Wilson flipped to Houston? JAG. Cozart? Texas offered him, but wasn't in offer with him, you know? Greathouse? Sark doesn't like extremely productive WRs, doesn't profile to Texas. MHP? Coaching staff backed off again. Parker? Totally would have committed, but Sark went a different direction, that direction apparently being "fuck WRs." Moore? Looking like a flip to Texas, therefore he was totally our guy all along. Not to mention how slowly we've been playing the portal right now. Fuck this noise. We dropped a lot of catchable balls last year and that's kind of a problem when your QB doesn't throw a lot of catchable balls. If the coaching staff doesn't bring in a lot of new faces, it's a failure of roster management at the WR position.

Glad to see the excitement of the transfer portal has given way to unquenchable thirst and slap fights. Boy, I sure hope we get some political talk in here next.

I’m upset. We’ve been in the wild west of portal season for twelve whole hours and nothing interesting has happened yet. I was told there would be chaos. I want to see Colorado’s entire two-deep enter the portal. I want A&M’s QB room to transfer to Wyoming. I want to see some DIII school pay Georgia’s 5th string linebacker a million dollars to destroy lesser players. It’s my portal season and I want it NOW!

Uh, that dude was second in TFLs in the Big XII this year with 13. And he had 2 sacks and an interception. Do want.

My biggest worries on the defense for next year are: (1). LB. After Jaylan Ford, the roster is a smoking crater of JAGs and outright busts. Choate's development of Jaylan Ford is revelation which gives me some hope that Gbenda or Dorbah can become quality starters, but they haven't flashed anything like Ford did at the end of the 2021 season. Jett Bush is slow and has poor instincts. The dude lives to create highlight moments for our opponents. And everyone else on the roster couldn't even get snaps over Jett Bush, so.....yeah, I'm nervous. Bring in two transfers, secure Anthony Hill, and process the dead weight. (2). Safety. After Jerrin Thompson, nobody has shown they can put it all together. Again, there is hope. in 2021 we looked completely lost at safety. Then in 2022, both Jerrin Thompson and Anthony Cook showed fantastic progress and the safety position went from a weakness to a strength on the defense. So, again, there is precedent for development with this staff and faith is justified. Kitan Crawford seems athletic enough, but he has trouble with mental lapses. Morice Blackwell seems like a spin-down linebacker candidate rather than a true safety. I could be lazy and say Michael Taaffe is white, therefore bad. But I'll try a little harder and say Taaffe is more Dylan Haines (athletically limited but scrappy player with nice moments counterbalanced with big gaffes) than Blake Gideon (fundamentally sound, quality starter). If Taaffe is getting more than 10-20 snaps a game next year, we've mismanaged the roster. Bring in a transfer and hope someone else has a breakout offseason. Between Ryan Watts, Jadae Barron, and Terrence Brooks, I'm comfortable with our starters at corner/nickel. The depth behind them is a little dicey, but I don't see any need for a transfer there. Assuming Sweat comes back, I feel like we have an excellent top 4 DT rotation with Sweat/Collins/Murphy/Broughton. Hot take alert: I don't think we need a transfer at edge. Between Sorrell and all the young talent we've stacked at edge, I think we'll be fine next year. If there's a difference-maker in the portal, by all means go get 'em, but that's a luxury more than a need in my mind.

I like the list but I would replace Barryn Sorrell with Jerrin Thompson. Thompson isn’t a super athletic player and won’t go down in Texas history with the likes of Michael Huff, Michael Griffin, or Earl Thomas, but he’s been a very steady player for Texas this year. Very solid in run support, lays the wood on hits but always keeps the strike zone below the head and neck area, and hasn’t been a liability in coverage. If Thompson can take on the role of getting the defensive backfield lined up next year, he’s going to be the most important player on the field after Jaylan Ford. I like Sorrell, but let’s be honest: he’s not keeping any offensive coordinators up at night. No one slides protection over to account for him. I appreciate that he’s the team’s best pass rusher, but that ain’t saying much.

Does it matter? We'll make his back-up look like Randy Moss.

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is spongey and bruised.

The most incredible thing to me about Sark's offense is how consistently guys are completely wide open. Look at how often the receivers catch the ball with nothing but green space around them in these clips. It's amazing. And they're almost always moving up field right as the catch happens so as long as the throw is on target you're guaranteed to get 4-5 yards after the catch at minimum. I'm so used to Texas receivers getting drilled right after the catch because nearly every route is a hitch with a defender standing right behind them or a shallow cross directly into a linebacker. This offense is a pleasure to watch.

My bad, I remembered it being Watts but the point still stands, it was man to man coverage and a corner got burned, can’t blame that on bad safety play. Don’t get me wrong, I recognize we have limitations at safety. Cook doesn’t have recovery speed and Thompson is still undersized for a safety. But they’re light years ahead of where they were last year in terms of lining up correctly, recognizing motion and assignment hand-offs, positioning, and run support. And the results reflect that.

Bad take. First off, we shut down former Heisman winner Bryce Young, arguably the best QB in the nation. Ford had a sack on a well-called blitz, but the vast majority of the pressure we got on Young was from tight coverage. The guy had nowhere to go with the ball. There’s no way we accomplish that without good safety play. Both players you’re referring to during UTSA were on Ryan Watts, he clearly got burned man to man on the long completion wiped out by a flag. On the trick play, he’s the closest guy to the receiver. There was a safety trailing right behind Watts who may have blown an assignment there, but it’s difficult to tell. Through 3 games, our safeties have played very well. Claiming they are “untested” is bullshit, I don’t know how to test a secondary if going against a former Heisman winner isn’t it. Claiming they’re doing well because of the pass rush is bullshit because the coverage is creating a lot of the pressure we’re getting, not the other way around. And claiming it’s just “game planning” is bullshit because no matter how much you game plan, the players still have to execute. And our safeties have executed.

I don’t think it’s fair to say we bungled it. Wilson was just never that into us. It happens. Maintain contact and see where we’re at once the season is over and we’ve got tape to show him of the defense kicking ass all year.

Putting in my Gullette prediction right now: If we get him, people will complain that he’s overrated, his film is unimpressive, and he’s injured. Coaches should have worked harder for someone else. If we don’t get him, people will complain that the coaches are lazy on the recruiting trail and have no plan at edge.

For the people who keep saying the Thursday BBQ was "haphazardly thrown together" or that the coaches took a vacation instead of recruiting, what is it exactly that you wish the coaches would have done? Hired Mossad to kidnap the recruits we want and bring them to campus? Promised hookers and blow at the pool party? We've offered and have maintained contact with 5 Star Damon Wilson from Florida, 4 star Tausili Akana from Utah, 4 star Braylan Shelby, 4 star Derion Gullette, and 4 star Colton Vasek. In Mack's time, we wouldn't have dreamed of recruiting anyone outside of the state of Texas. Wilson? Akana? Never getting a phone call from us. Mack was also incredibly careful with offers to keep his commit-to-offer ratio high, so he wouldn't have even offered any of these guys if he didn't know for sure they were going to commit first. Shelby? Gullette? Probably don't even have offers right now in Mack's day. Charlie Strong would have peppered them all with offers and then the moment any of the recruitments seemed difficult, he would have committed all efforts to 3 stars from Florida that his awful staff couldn't develop. Herman would have already forgotten their names. Is this staff perfect? No. Obviously, they still have a lot to prove on the field. But I can't believe I'm reading these shit takes about their effort on the recruiting trail. We've got a top-5 recruiting class with 20 commits in July after a 5-7 season. How are people unhappy with this?

Edge was always going to be difficult to recruit after a 5-7 season when our defense looked like dog shit and we couldn’t rush the passer. What do we even tell these kids? “We’re gonna use you like we used Ben Davis! Here’s the tape on all 2.5 of his sacks last year. He was our sack leader, by the way.” It’s honestly a testament to the staff’s effort that we’re hanging around the rim with these guys like we are. Our game plan at edge should be to maintain contact with everyone we’re interested in regardless of whether they commit elsewhere, produce on the field in 2022, and see who we can reel in after we’ve got something we can sell. We’re crushing it on offense and doing way better than we have any right to expect on defense. Everyone chill.