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Texas Recruiting Notes 2023: Strippers, Monkeys, and 5-Stars

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Getafix

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(This is quite a story ... ) 

 

Inside Payton Kirkland’s journey in becoming a blue-chip recruit en route to landing at Texas

Steve Wiltfong

 

Spoiler

 

Inside Payton Kirkland’s journey in becoming a blue-chip recruit en route to landing at Texas

Steve Wiltfong
 

New Texas offensive line commit Payton Kirkland is going to bring the mentality second-year head coach Steve Sarkisian and his staff are looking for as they continue to work on the recruiting trail in aiming to turn this Longhorns program into a winner in Austin.

The 6-foot-6, 345-pound Kirkland is always trying to measure himself against the best, one time calling out former five-star defensive line recruit Leonard Taylor in a playoff game his sophomore year.

“Payton was holding his own against that kid,” Dr. Phillips offensive line coach Adam Sitter stated. Prior to coaching at his high school alma mater, Sitter played at Army and worked at Florida and Kansas as a college coach. “Payton is not afraid of a challenge by any means.”

And the blue-chipper who chose the Longhorns over the likes of Florida, Michigan State and Oklahoma, rose to the occasion.

“I went against him half the game,” Kirkland said of the now Miami Hurricane. “I gave up no sacks, no tackles, zero pressures. He’s a senior, I’m a sophomore. I wanted some. I’m a competitor and I handled my business and I took care of what I had to do.”

Sarkisian and company are doing what they have to do on the trail, adding Kirkland to a recruiting class ranked No. 3 nationally by the 247Sports Composite. They finished No. 5 a cycle ago. Within that haul, the Longhorns signed the best offensive line class in the country and follow it up with another terrific group at the point of attack including Kirkland, a massive prospect that can move, bend and play with the mental toughness coveted at the position.

“It’s always great to be part of something that’s established,” Kirkland said. “All it needs is a little push and that Texas program is going to be back to top of the ranks. It’s definitely something I’m excited about. It’s a great culture out there and Austin, Texas is the place I ultimately wanted to live after football.”

Kirkland commits to Texas having never visited before. We’ll get to that later in the story. This whole process has been a blur for Kirkland who didn’t start playing football till his freshman year. He fancied himself a basketball player for much of his life and thought that would be the route he’d take as physical post presence that had quick hops and played above the rim.

Kirkland’s mother Veronica thought Payton would be a basketball player as well and they hit the AAU circuit hard over the years. However going into freshman year at West Orange, the elder Kirkland told Payton he better find something to do in the fall.

“My mom forced me to play football,” Kirkland laughed. “She didn’t want me at the house during the offseason for basketball. She said I better find anything they have going on after school because I can’t come home.”

So Kirkland reluctantly chose football.

“I cried about the first three weeks,” Kirkland said, adding they were literal tears. “I was the fourth-string defensive tackle the first four weeks of the season and a lot of people got hurt and I ended up playing left tackle from there.”

And slowly but surely Kirkland started to like it. He transferred to Dr. Phillips in the winter, one of the more tradition-rich football programs in the state. Every college program in the country comes by Dr. Phillips at some point or another and Arizona State happened to be there when Kirkland was in gym class.

“We were playing basketball and I was dunking all over the place,” Kirkland remembered. “They offered me based off that. Just off athleticism for a big guy.”

That athleticism for a big guy certainly had Sitter excited. There was a lot to mold but it was going to take work. Good thing Kirkland loves to work. He embraces the process of every task he does.

“He’s always grinding on me to learn more, ‘teach me more Coach, teach me more,’” Sitter said. “That’s going to be a big upside mentally for him. He’s a smart kid and he wants to be good and he’s willing to put the work in.”

Sitter knows what it looks like. He’s been around the Pouncey twins

Marcus Gilbert and Maurice Hurt at Florida. A Steve Addazio disciple, Sitter has coached several high school players that have gone on to play at the highest level.

“Physically he’s a guy I can absolutely grind on and he’s going to get through it,” Sitter said. “You can find if I don’t do a good enough job grinding on him, he’s good at knowing how to talk trash to me respectfully and make me as a coach push him. He’s super athletic, he was a basketball kid too, he has great feet, he has quick feet, great hips, not a stiff guy as well. And he’s physical. That’s a great combination because sometimes you get the long, lanky guy. He’s a guy I could move to guard, I could have him play center, just for fun I’m teaching him to play center because I think he can be a really good center, but he’s a left tackle too. That adds value.”

Leonard Taylor was just the first elite player Kirkland tested himself against.

“I train with (Penn State’s) Zane Durant, (NC State’s) Nick Campbell, Tyler Davis at Clemson, and they whooped my tail for a whole off-season,” Kirkland said of the time spent after his sophomore campaign. “I got working with Coach Sitter and took what I learned and put two and two together and everything started clicking and it was go time. Being around Coach Sitter I learned you need to be an a-hole (as a player) and he helped me with that. He’s coached plenty of guys. He’s been around guys in the NFL and he pours a lot into me.”

“What makes Payton special in my opinion is he’s a leader and he is and also I don’t think his full potential has been scratched,” Kirkland’s mom Veronica said. She certainly didn’t see any of this coming. “Like right now the people he plays against are smaller, a little bit smaller than him sometimes. I don’t think he’s fully actualized. I think that’s exciting to consider plus he really is a student of the game and studies a lot.”

Kirkland studied this recruiting process as well. Ohio State led for the majority of the time and Miami had momentum late. But Texas wins out at the buzzer.

“From being silently committed to Ohio State from July 29 going into my sophomore year all the way to November this past school year, it’s a true testament anything can change at any time and it’s not something to be taken for granted. I’m blessed to be in this position.”

Kirkland took June officials to Florida, Miami, Michigan State and Oklahoma.

“The plan was to go to Miami but certain things didn’t work out between the two of us,” Kirkland said. “The relationship was amazing but it had to come to a close unfortunately. I was crying in my mom’s lap confused, I needed clarity, I was praying at the same time and out of nowhere I said call (Texas offensive line coach) Coach (Kyle) Flood. It’s a faith-based decision and God spoke to me. I wasn’t thinking about going there whatsoever and out of nowhere something told me to call Coach Flood. Coach Flood and Coach Sark were recruiting me when they were at Alabama.

“Coach Flood was like ‘is this real right now, is this real,’ and I was like tell him mom, tell him and 15 minutes later I was on with (247Sports National Analyst) Andrew Ivins (recording my commitment).”

Kirkland plans to visit Texas at the end of the month and return of this official in the fall.

“This school is really the one we both agreed on,” Veronica said. “For me, we already know they have history. They have a big history. If you are playing football you need to be in two states, you need to be in Texas and you need to be in Florida and we’ve already been in Florida. For me it’s Arch, Arch Manning. If he’s No. 1, then you should be where he is. To me that’s the way it should be. If my son considers himself to be the best, he needs to go where the most smoke is to me.”

And over the last three years, Kirkland has shown he’s ready for the smoke. Sarkisian adds another big-time piece to the puzzle.

 

 

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Ricky's one-hitter

Ricky's one-hitter 9,084

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18 minutes ago, Getafix said:

I was praying at the same time and out of nowhere I said call (Texas offensive line coach) Coach (Kyle) Flood. It’s a faith-based decision and God spoke to me. I wasn’t thinking about going there whatsoever and out of nowhere something told me to call Coach Flood.

Tell aggy it was God

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SamMan

SamMan 1,347

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15 minutes ago, ATXbronco said:

Not that it matters, just mentioning as a tidbit.

But if I remember correct, the Dr. Phillips area of Orlando is/was upper middleclass / maybe lower upperclass and beyond.

Not too far from Disneyworld.

Not gonna get political, but do those yuppie motherfuckers wear adidas?? That’s what matters..

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Rimbo

Rimbo 25,778

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6 hours ago, closetojumping said:

Get your shit together, Mitch. We’ve had cheaters kicking sand in our collective face for 15 years when it comes to the OL and the shitty results have followed. Now isn’t the time to start feeling conflicted. Fuck. 

 

Also: It legal now.

 

6 hours ago, MH BEVO said:


just tweeted this today and we’re still not on the edit. Fuck it. My only regret is we didn’t start this 5 years ago to give Bijan a proper oline 

 

It's fun reading these posts after-the-fact. :D

 

4 hours ago, CowtownHorn said:

 

image.gif

 

image.gif.030705896d92b7899554e0183905c1dd.gif

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Napoleon

Napoleon 8,600

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4 minutes ago, Mr. Mojo Risin' said:

I think part A (Miami pulled the offer)

because of part B (they filled up on Tackles this year already)

No team has benefited as much from Mario Cristobal’s decisions over the last 8 months as yourrrrr…

TEXAS LONGHORNS!!

🤘

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