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Texas Recruiting Notes 2020

Reese Bennett

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Sabalo

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Article from The Athletic. Recruiting related because they didn't bash Herman or UT.

 

Spoiler

How Graham Harrell arrived at his decision to stay at USC

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By Antonio Morales Dec 23, 2019comment-icon.png 25 save-icon.png

LOS ANGELES — Before he arrived at USC, Graham Harrell worked on Seth Littrell’s staff at North Texas for three seasons.

In that time, Littrell estimated he fielded five or six phone calls from coaches who had an interest in Harrell. Whether those calls came from North Carolina, which Harrell turned down, or USC, whose offer Harrell accepted, Littrell had a pretty good idea of what the decision-making process would be like for his in-demand offensive coordinator.

“He’s always going to take it all in,” Littrell told The Athletic earlier this year. “He’s going to look at the situation, he’s going to talk to people. I know he’s going to talk to his dad, his family. Nothing at first with Graham is going to come up and he’s going to be pumped up right immediately. He’s got to talk himself through every situation and I think he does in a smart way. He’s rational. He’s going to make sure everything lines up and is the right fit for him.”

Apparently that goes beyond football, too.

“That’s very true about any decision,” Harrell’s wife, Brittney, said. “Regardless of it’s a job move or a Christmas present, he takes forever to make a decision.”

A week ago, the latest big decision in Harrell’s career became official. USC announced a three-year contract extension with Harrell — worth $1.2 million per season, according to The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman — after he drastically improved the Trojans’ offense during his first season as their offensive coordinator. His decision to stay came after he was connected to several other opportunities in recent weeks.

As usual, Harrell took a lot of people’s advice and thoughts into account. He spoke to his good friends and fellow USC staffers Seth Doege and John David Baker, with whom he carpools to work every day. He spoke to some other USC coaches and to his agents. He also discussed his options with Brittney and his father, Sam, both of whom The Athletic spoke with in recent days to gain some insight into what went into Harrell’s decision.

The Trojans climbed from 63rd among FBS programs in offensive yards per play (5.77) in 2018 to 15th (6.61) this season. They went from 91st in scoring offense (26.1 points) to 36th (33.2), and their passing offense ranked fifth nationally (335.9 yards per game) a year after checking in at 48th (249.1 yards per game).

Harrell instilled an identity and a sense of confidence USC’s offense lacked the year before. And the Trojans did the majority of their best work under the guidance of an overlooked true freshman quarterback in Kedon Slovis, a three-star prospect who blossomed into one of the country’s best young quarterbacks under Harrell.

It was an impressive job by Harrell, so naturally, it garnered him some attention during this winter’s coaching carousel. He was rumored to be involved with the head coach openings at UTSA and UNLV. The biggest threat that loomed was Texas, which had interest in Harrell for its offensive coordinator opening.

Sam Harrell examined the pros and cons of each scenario with his son. He was quick to remind him that, as an offensive coordinator, you could be on top of the world one season and then heavily maligned the next.

You have to be at a place you feel good about being able to run your offense, Sam said, and look at the factors that make you feel good about running that offense. That starts at quarterback.

“At USC, you would check that box pretty quickly,” Sam Harrell said. “At other places, you don’t know. It’s an unknown. Kedon really fits the scheme well and Kedon understands the offense, and he and Graham have a really good relationship and that’s not always going to be guaranteed.”

Then there’s the question of autonomy. Will the OC have the freedom to run and call the plays he believes in?

“When you look at USC, Coach (Clay) Helton lets him do that,” Sam Harrell said. “Once again, you check that box. ‘Hey, I’ve got that right here.’ Would you have that at other places? Well, you might, you might not. You just don’t know. You don’t know exactly what the quarterback is going to be like. You don’t know if you’re going to have that autonomy. You don’t know some of those things. And he likes it at USC.”

Brittney Harrell echoed some of those sentiments as well: It was a matter of the known vs. the unknown. Graham knows his offense can work at USC. If he went elsewhere, he would have had to start over and change the offense’s identity at a new school, and his new team would have experienced the growing pains that come with that.

Offensively, there’s a really high ceiling for the Trojans next season. The line will return at least three starters. Four running backs who received significant playing time this season will come back. Leading receiver and Biletnikoff Award finalist Michael Pittman Jr. (95 receptions for 1,222 yards and 11 touchdowns) will be gone, and Tyler Vaughns (68 receptions, 858 yards) could leave as well, but the receiving group will return Amon-Ra St. Brown (68 receptions, 879 yards) and Drake London (35 receptions, 533 yards). Former blue-chip prospects Kyle Ford and Bru McCoy will join that receiver rotation after redshirting their freshman seasons.

And of course, there is Slovis, who passed for 3,242 yards, 28 touchdowns and nine interceptions while completing 71.9 percent of his attempts as a true freshman.

“I think the most important things to him as far as being here was just his relationship with Kedon and some of the players,” Brittney Harrell said. “He knows what he has here versus some other places were just more of a question mark.

“They’re 100 percent bought in and he has such a great relationship with them, and I think that was one of his biggest motives for staying. ‘I like it here. I like what I have going with the players. They’ve bought in and listen. Not only are they really talented, but they’re really coachable and all bought in to the Air Raid.’ I think his relationships with the coaches, the staff and players was one reason why we stayed and that might not have been the case other places. We just didn’t know.”

On a personal level, Graham had to consider his family — Brittney and their four-year old son, Herschel Hawk Harrell — when weighing his opportunities. There was a natural pull that going back home to Texas presented. Brittney grew up in East Texas. Graham’s parents still live in Ennis, Texas. Graham grew up in the state, so he likes recruiting the area. He knows those high school coaches, and they know him. There’s a comfort level that makes it appealing.

The allure of getting closer to home is obvious, but Southern California grew on Brittney almost immediately.

“There’s something for everyone here — even for some Texans,” Graham told reporters last week. “My wife thinks she lives in paradise, and my son lives with Mickey Mouse and the beach, so what’s there not to like? They’re happy, and if they’re happy, that helps the cause. If you’re at some places where the family’s not as happy, getting home would have weighed a lot more into it.”

“I, one day, would love to be back in Texas, but in the meantime I’m not in any rush to move,” Brittney said. “Especially because we feel like this was the right place for us. I just think it’s not a bad place to live, and all of our family comes to vacation here. Literally every month we have a family member or friend coming, so it’s not a bad spot to stay and there’s just so much to do. When he’s making all those decisions, the thought of possibly moving back to Texas or staying here, or any decision we’re making, I would be kind of sad to leave here because I feel like I haven’t finished everything I wanted to do here. There’s so much to do and so many things to take Hawk to. I haven’t finished it all. I need to stay here a little longer.”

In some order, Brittney said, the most stressful part of these decisions for Graham is usually twofold: how it’s going to impact his son, and his relationship with his quarterbacks. He told ESPN that telling his North Texas quarterback Mason Fine that he was leaving for USC was the most difficult conversation he ever had.

Brittney always had a feeling Graham would stay. Sam didn’t have any early hunches, mainly because for almost two weeks, nobody knew whether it would be Harrell’s choice to make.

“Oh, it was pretty late,” Sam said. “For one thing, USC, until they gave Clay a firm commitment, so Graham when he was talking to those schools about head jobs and talking to Texas, at that point he wasn’t sure he was going to have a job at USC, until that finally came final. Once that became final, if he wanted to stay there he could. For a while, that looked like it may not be his decision. But once they came out and said Coach Helton was going to be brought back, I’m sure he felt like he was sure he was (coming back). It wasn’t immediately after that, but it was pretty soon after that he felt like that was the best decision.”

A few days after the school announced its decision to retain Helton, it offered Harrell a new contract. A little more than a week later, a new agreement was announced by the school. Once again, Harrell had taken his time.

Although Graham didn’t land a head coaching job during this coaching carousel, those interviews could prove fruitful in the future. He’s never interviewed much before, especially for head coaching positions.

“He didn’t really interview when he got the Washington State job,” Sam said. “Coach (Mike) Leach just called him and said, ‘Hey, you’re not playing for the Packers anymore, why don’t you come coach?’ That was it. It wasn’t like he had to draw up diagrams and interview, and the same thing happened at UNT. Seth just called him and said, ‘Hey, I want you to be my offensive coordinator. Come on.’ He hadn’t really been to interviews and sure hadn’t been on one for a head job, and those were helpful to get an idea of what’s that like, talking to presidents and athletic directors about head jobs. I think that will be beneficial somewhere down the line.

“But right now, he enjoys what he’s doing. So I’m sure he’s excited about next year.”

If next year turns out to be even more successful for USC’s offense than his debut season was, Harrell will likely have more decisions to make.

 

Edited by Sabalo
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Newy25

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8 minutes ago, LTtxfan said:

I hope Texas finds a couple grad-transfers to fill a couple needs in 2020.  Getting accepted to grad school at Texas isn't easy.

Maybe this guy could qualify and help... Thx for finding this @Hiphopopotamos

https://247sports.com/Player/Andrew-Pryts-37962/

When you consider what is happening to our 2019 class combined with Orlando’s amazing efforts at recruiting linebackers, I hope we are all over players like this. 

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Pato del Muerto

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13 minutes ago, LTtxfan said:

I hope Texas finds a couple grad-transfers to fill a couple needs in 2020.  Getting accepted to grad school at Texas isn't easy.

Maybe this guy could qualify and help... Thx for finding this @Hiphopopotamos

https://247sports.com/Player/Andrew-Pryts-37962/

He will likely be aggy’s to lose, if he can get in. 

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Fud

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On ‎12‎/‎24‎/‎2019 at 5:16 PM, Jester’s Inn said:

Does anyone else think that Evans is going the Jr college route?  Evidently he hasn’t scored very well on his ACT and keeps blowing smoke up aggy, LSU and Georgia’s arst. I’m thinking he has a grade problem. 

He was taking the ACT to try and get his GPA/Test Score sliding scale factor up high enough to enroll early. If he's unable to enroll early, there's still plenty of time to qualify. 

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Vertigo

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On 12/24/2019 at 10:20 AM, Newy25 said:

Sight unseen he is probably better than what we have in the pipeline at LB. Judging  by the fact that he has actually played and appears to have a pulse. 

I am actually excited about Tillman and Caleb Johnson under a coach who teaches crazy things like tackling and recognition. Outside of that who knows. 

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Michael Knight

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We'll see who they fill the rest of the staff out with thats more important than the DC and OC since both of those guys don't seem to recruit much.The scheme should make things easier to teach on defense but we need   A+ recruiters and good teachers, especially at the WR and DB positions.

Edited by Michael Knight
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golfclap

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11 minutes ago, Michael Knight said:

We'll see who they fill the rest of the staff out with thats more important than the DC and OC since both of those guys don't seem to recruit much.

Ash is a very active recruiter and is a MASSIVE upgrade 1:1 with Orlando in that arena. Orlando was a net negative as a recruiter, esp when compared to the DCs at all of the schools we recruit against. Even before this season played out I talked about how much improvement we’d see in recruiting just going from Orlando to Naivar or whoever replaced him. 

 

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Michael Knight

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25 minutes ago, golfclap said:

Ash is a very active recruiter and is a MASSIVE upgrade 1:1 with Orlando in that arena. Orlando was a net negative as a recruiter, esp when compared to the DCs at all of the schools we recruit against. Even before this season played out I talked about how much improvement we’d see in recruiting just going from Orlando to Naivar or whoever replaced him. 

 

Ash is not considered a plus recruiter, that was the knock on him coming out of OSU. 247 doesn't even have any recruits associated with him. Yurich has 2 from his time at the other OSU.  Thats fine, your coordinators shouldn't be your best recruiters other than the OC and QB relationship.

 

Orlando was a negative because his scheme was recruited against and he did nothing to counter that.

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