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Texas Recruiting Notes 2024: Bags Don't Beat Bankrolls

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RGBIII
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Finally can tell my aggy story.    Have a good insight into this kids recruitment and I’m still laughing about his visit to aggy. Dude gets his player host (I’ll let y’all find who that is) and

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How do you think this is helpful? Not being a jerk, just asking y'all to keep your shit together and use common sense. In any event, I know for a fact that nothing ever happens with Texas until a

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He could have if he isn't. Play devil's advocate and tell us why you feel about this guy's overall approach to his recruitment and how that either translates to the next level or doesn't matter.

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JesusSweatDuck

JesusSweatDuck 17,787

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1 hour ago, ATXbronco said:

Gary Busey's grandson?


That dude isn't going anywhere the waves aren't.

Wasn't Austin supposed to get a massive engineered wave park soon?

 

Not yet - maybe never?
https://canada.constructconnect.com/dcn/news/usa/2023/02/texas-rides-a-wave-of-waterpark-development

Had one, closed.  City required it to operate like a pool which wasn't possible 

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Zhorn96

Zhorn96 1,773

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On 6/2/2023 at 7:14 PM, BigHorn'13 said:

Whatever happened to @coachkiss? Everytime I see Melissa mentioned, I'm expecting him to chime in (assuming he's not getting his wife drunk on Malibu and big red to do butt stuff.)

Oooooooohhhhhh, you need to use big red, not Dr Pepper.  No wonder it wasn’t working

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Bevo

Bevo 13,592

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Ryner Swanson's film looks like prototypical TE stuff. He has great size. He has decent footwork and average speed. He never tries to juke a db and instead just tries to run through them. He catches the ball well, catches in traffic, blocks, is willing to hit and take a hit. He won't be creating mismatches, but he will be solid in all facets of the game. He needs to lower his pads though because eventually he is going to get hit in the knees by smaller guys.

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Thiefery

Thiefery 5,016

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2 hours ago, Elmer_Fudd said:

Roach crystal balled Corian Gipson to Clemson.  Clemson mod also crystal balled Wesco to them.

Gerry on a livestream said Gipson's mom wants him to get away from the Dallas area.. I bet Austin wasn't far enough.. Also regarding Wesco.. he was saying LSU was surging for him

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Teryor

Teryor 4,476

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247 on Swanson 

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Laguna Beach (CA) tight end Ryner Swanson was the lone official visitor on campus this weekend as the 6-foot-4.5, 240-pounder made his second trip to Austin this offseason. Horns247 caught up with sources close to the California native and on the Texas side to get a complete view of his recruitment after the weekend trip to Austin.

The biggest dynamic going for Texas in this recruitment is that Swanson absolutely loves the city of Austin and the overall vibe on campus. The staff did a brilliant job letting Swanson explore the city along with the traditional OV experiences like touring the football facilities and meeting with his position coach. One highlight, in particular, was a trip to Matt’s El Rancho with a large group of recruiting staffers. 

(Photo: 247Sports)
While Swanson’s favorite thing about Texas is the atmosphere around the campus and city, that’s not to say that he isn’t extremely impressed by the coaching staff and football fit. A source on the Texas side mentioned to Horns247 that Swanson remarked multiple times about how he knows that the best spot of the five schools in his listed top group to be developed for the NFL is Texas.

After visiting Texas, Swanson will make the trip to Eugene, Oregon this upcoming weekend for his second official visit. One source close to Swanson feels like the Ducks hold the lead heading into the weekend with former Texas coach and current Oregon TEs coach Drew Mehringer leading the way with an assist from Oregon HC Dan Lanning.

BYU doesn’t have an official visit set up yet for Swanson but do not discount the Cougars in the race for the composite four-star. Swanson’s mom attended BYU and the California native has visited Provo more than any other school in his top five. One source on the Texas side said that the longer the recruitment goes into the fall, the more likely it is that BYU wins out.

 

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Bevo

Bevo 13,592

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1 hour ago, Teryor said:

After visiting Texas, Swanson will make the trip to Eugene, Oregon this upcoming weekend for his second official visit. One source close to Swanson feels like the Ducks hold the lead heading into the weekend with former Texas coach and current Oregon TEs coach Drew Mehringer leading the way with an assist from Oregon HC Dan Lanning.

I wonder if Swanson is interested to know that Mehringer was fired at Texas for sucking at his job and for being a douche.

BTW, how do y'all feel about this in his Oregon bio: On the recruiting trail, Mehringer ranked as the Big 12’s top recruiter and the No. 3 recruiter in the nation for the 2019 class according to 247Sports.

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kwood4408

kwood4408 765

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I wonder if Swanson is interested to know that Mehringer was fired at Texas for sucking at his job and for being a douche.
BTW, how do y'all feel about this in his Oregon bio: On the recruiting trail, Mehringer ranked as the Big 12’s top recruiter and the No. 3 recruiter in the nation for the 2019 class according to 247Sports.

Wasn’t that the Bru McCoy, Whittington, Jake Smith class. On paper in January of 2019 it looked great.
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Bevo

Bevo 13,592

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7 minutes ago, kwood4408 said:


Wasn’t that the Bru McCoy, Whittington, Jake Smith class. On paper in January of 2019 it looked great.

Paper might be a good way to describe those 3. Although, Whittington has a chance to shine for us this year.

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victory88

victory88 5,669

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49 minutes ago, Elmer_Fudd said:

Haven't seen anything in regards to Modden taking an OV/visit here this summer.  Little surprised he's still a commit, with everything that's been put out.

You remember when aggy had that OL commit that would refuse to decommit that had no other P5 offers.  Not sure Modden is in the same scenario but Gerry mentioned that he doesn’t expect Modden to be in the class and that he can’t say why on a live stream.  One of the guys had previous on another chat mentioned he didn’t exactly have a good season.  I’m guessing he’s doing his best to stay in the class.  Not sure what other options he can commit to that would be on par to Texas.

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bwub60

bwub60 147

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14 hours ago, Elmer_Fudd said:

Haven't seen anything in regards to Modden taking an OV/visit here this summer.  Little surprised he's still a commit, with everything that's been put out.

On one of IT's youtube shows Wells let the cat out of the bag that they expect Modden decommit. Pretty sure he was drunk but everyone agreed.

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satyanash

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(Bud Elliott) Blue-Chip Ratio 2023: The 16 teams who can actually win a national title

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How much talent does it take to win the national championship in college football? That’s the question I set out to answer more than a decade ago in creating the Blue-Chip Ratio. Since its inception in 2013 the Blue-Chip Ratio been referenced on all the major broadcast networks and tracked closely by head coaches and administrators. It’s not the most complicated calculation in the world, but it’s a great way to figure out the top 10 percent or so of the teams in the sport which can actually take home the title.

Put simply, to win the national championship, college football teams need to sign more four- and five-star recruits (AKA “Blue Chips”) than two- and three-star players over the previous four recruiting classes. This has been true basically as far back as modern internet recruiting rankings have existed.

Media will sometimes hype a team which has not met the threshold as a national title contender, but history has shown that is not a smart practice. Think Wisconsin, Baylor, Michigan State, TCU, Utah, Cincinnati, TCU, etc. over the last decade. The Blue-Chip Ratio threshold does not guarantee a national championship, but a team not meeting it is almost certainly guaranteed not to win it all.

The requirement to stack talent on top of talent makes sense when considering the violence of the sport of football. Even those teams who stay relatively healthy need depth to survive the season. Teams who sign elite class after elite class have greater competition in practice, and greater quality of depth.

Recruiting rankings are not perfect. But they are damn good, especially in the aggregate. Four- and five-star recruits are about 10 times more likely to be drafted in the first round than their two- and three-star counterparts. And five-stars are about 33 times more likely to be All-Americans as two-stars are. For every two-star who becomes a big success, there are multiples who will be going pro in something other than sports. And they are getting better annually due to advancements in technology and data.

That is not to say that development does not matter. It certainly does. But nobody wins a national title by player development in lieu of elite recruiting. Plenty of coaches who are regarded as elite have never sniffed winning it all because they cannot accumulate enough talent. On the other hand, there are examples of coaches who are not regarded as premier head men who have won it all thanks to elite recruits. Not to lump them into the same category, but nobody ever accused Gene Chizik, Les Miles, Mack Brown or Ed Orgeron of being tactical masterminds.

Coaching matters. But recruiting is by far the most important piece when it comes to separating the good from the great.

WHAT THE BCR IS NOT

The Blue-Chip is just the minimum amount of talent needed to win the national championship. It is not a requirement to make the College Football Playoff. Making the playoff does require some level of talent, but schedule also matters quite a bit. It is also not a substitute for culture, coaching, player development, etc. It is also not something you should use to pick games. This is simply a way to pare down the list of potential national championship teams.

Betting on a team outside the Blue-Chip Ratio to win it all is a pretty bad bet, as history has shown. But using the Blue-Chip Ratio to pick individual games is also a bad bet. It is simply not designed for that purpose. The only purpose is to say which teams have recruited well enough to win a national championship.

Some teams simply do not have a shot of signing elite prospects and must instead find diamonds in the rough. That’s a strategy that can produce wins and conference titles, though perhaps not Playoff rings. And those teams absolutely can beat teams who recruit well in one-off settings. The Playoff, however, is not a one-off. So use the BCR to narrow down your list of who could win it all. Don’t use it to bet on games.

HOW HAS THIS STAT PERFORMED IN THE PAST?

  •     In 2022, Georgia took home the title in dominant fashion with a 77% ratio.
  •     In 2021, Georgia had an 80 percent BCR and won it all, beating the No. 1 BCR team Alabama in the title game. Three of the four playoff teams were BCR teams as Cincinnati was the first crasher since 2017.
  •     In 2020, Alabama had an 83 percent BCR and won it all. All four Playoff teams were BCR schools.
  •     In 2019, LSU won it with a 64 percent BCR, and all four Playoff teams were BCR schools.
  •     Clemson, with a 61 percent mark, took it home in 2018. And all four Playoff teams were BCR schools.
  •     Alabama won it all in 2017 with an incredible 80 percent mark.
  •     Clemson took home the title in 2016 after signing 52 percent blue chips in the 2013-16 classes.
  •     In 2015, Alabama had a 77 percent mark.
  •     In 2014, it was Ohio State at 68 percent.
  •     In 2013, Florida State was at 53 percent.
  •     In 2012, Alabama was at 71 percent
  •     ... just as Bama was in 2011.

THE POOL OF PLAYERS CONSIDERED

All high school and JUCO scholarship signees count. Walk-ons are not signees, so they do not. Besides, they are almost never rated. Sticking with signees helps to standardize the process. If a player signs, is released from his National Letter of Intent, and signs with a new school, as opposed to transferring, I count that player toward the new school.

If a player signs with a school and is unable to enroll and must go to JUCO, he still counts because the school used one of its Letters of Intent (LOI) on him. I use the 247Sports Composite, which blends the major rankings. I manually check each signee in each class for accuracy. Some team sites years ago erroneously listed walk-ons as signees. Removing non-scholarship players and verifying signing lists is by far the most time-consuming element.

BUT WHAT ABOUT TRANSFERS?

Last year on transfers I wrote: “Transfers are not counted. Transfers (not junior college) are not governed by the same recruit rules. And though they’re important, they are rarely consequential enough to turn a non-contender into a contender. More on transfers and the evolution of the BCR will be coming soon.”

The second part of that is still true. Through three years of heavy transfer portal activity, national titles are not being won through the portal. Georgia did not take a single scholarship transfer last season. Teams loading up on transfers are frequently coaches looking for a jumpstart to a new tenure, or, on the other end, looking for a fix to save their jobs.

But with each passing year, transfers are becoming more ubiquitous within the sport of college football, thanks to the removal of the year-in-residence requirement, opening the door for immediate eligibility. There were more than 2000 scholarship transfers this offseason alone.

247Sports has recognized and reacted to the explosion of transfers, with the most comprehensive transfer ratings in the industry. We have multiple full-time staff, including some who have worked for college football personnel offices, working on our transfer ratings. And, important to me if I was going to include transfers in the Blue-Chip Ratio, the proportion of blue-chip ratings given out relative to two- or three-star ratings is somewhat consistent with the grades assigned to high school and JUCO recruits.

But what I do not know is how those grades will look when evaluated by the NFL draft. I have that data for years and years of high school recruits. Since the BCR is a historical standard, I will continue to monitor the data over several years and then make a determination as to how it is incorporated into the BCR. I will also provide a graphic of how the BCR looks if transfers were incorporated later in this article, and the results might surprise you.

LET'S GET TO THE 2023 LIST

11798809.png

The list this year consists of, in order, Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia, Texas A&M, Clemson, LSU, Texas, Oklahoma, Oregon, Notre, Dame, Florida, Miami, Penn State, Michigan, USC and Auburn. I think Tennessee, North Carolina, and Florida State have the best odds of getting in next season if they have big seasons on the field and can convert that into top recruits.

CONFERENCE SUPERIORITY

The SEC leads the way with six teams. The Big Ten is next, with three. The ACC has two, the Big 12 has two, and the Pac-12 does as well. The Group of 5 has zero, and nobody close.

But if you consider that Texas and Oklahoma are going to the SEC, and that USC is headed to the Big Ten, the landscape looks different. There is no team in the Big 12 not named Oklahoma or Texas who is even three strong classes away from joining the list. And without USC, Oregon is likely to be alone in the Pac-12 at the top of the recruiting list for a while to come. The Big Ten and SEC will have 12 of the 16 BCR teams in 2024 if things hold.

MORE AND MORE SUPERTEAMS MAKE THIS A HARD CLUB TO CRACK

In 2014, no team was above 75 percent. In 2015, only Alabama was. In 2016 and 2017, it was still just Alabama. The 2018 BCR saw Ohio State get into that “super elite: class. In 2023, there are three teams over that number and eight teams at 70 percent or higher, which is a first. Oh, and Alabama, which set the all-time record for the highest BCR in 2021, and went slightly higher in 2022, is the first team to hit the 90 percent mark in the history of the BCR.

These superteams are making it tougher for others to join the club. As detailed above, there just aren’t any teams threatening to crash the party.

The days of discussing whether teams like South Carolina, Ole Miss, Michigan State, or TCU can make a jump into the upper tier of talent have been somewhat shelved. Those teams were winning a lot and scoring some wins against the college football goliaths in the early and mid-2010s, which left us to wonder if they could turn wins into a few more elite recruits.

But for a variety of reasons it did not happen. And further, not many schools have stepped up to take their places. It stands to reason that the very best of schools filling the bottom of their classes with elite players means the third-tier schools are not able to get as many. However: very talented, non-superteams do still win it all with the right recipe.

Of course, being that much higher than 50 percent does not necessarily follow with corresponding extra success. LSU in 2019 won it all at 64 percent, and Clemson in 2018 took home the title with a 61 percent BCR. The Tigers of 2016 were 52 percent in BCR. I’ll never argue that more talent is worse, but the BCR is focused on the bare minimum level needed.

WILL THE BCR CLUB'S CHAMPIONSHIP MONOPOLY HOLD FOREVER?

No. At some point a team with maybe a high 40s number, a transcendent QB, and great injury luck will bust this. It’s bound to happen. This almost happened in 2014 with Oregon and Marcus Mariota. An extremely talented Cincinnati team with a record nine players drafted made the CFB Playoff but was two wins away from winning it all. TCU was an awesome story in 2022, and made it to the final game, only to lose by eight touchdowns to Georgia.

Could that be Tennessee, Florida State, or Washington in 2023? We’ll see.

FINALLY, LET’S LOOK AT THE BCR WITH THE TRANSFERS

Here’s how it changes with transfers in.

11799006.png

My first takeaway is that the very best teams are not improving their BCR with transfers, at least through two years of complete transfer ratings. Michigan went up by one percent, while a few teams go down by more than five percent if transfers are added in, and Auburn actually drops out if transfers are included. Does that feel right? I think so. It is comforting to see that, at the very least, it is not inflating their BCR numbers. And it is consistent with the idea that many transfers are taken for depth or to fill holes, and that there are not many elite players available in the portal at premium positions, at least so far.

Florida State will be the most interesting case to look at this year. Including transfers pushes FSU’s BCR from 38% to 41%. Yet the Seminoles have top-10 odds in Vegas to win the title. Michigan State receiver Keon Coleman, UTEP offensive lineman Jeremiah Byers, Western Michigan defensive tackle Braden Fiske, South Carolina defensive end Gilber Edmond, and Virginia cornerback Fentrell Cypress II are all additions from this year and almost all will be expected to start.

FSU projects as a very good team. It doesn’t have a lot of identifiable weaknesses and QB Jordan Travis is even getting some Heisman Trophy love. But does it have enough top-end talent? It’s potentially a bit of a very good vs. great argument. Consider that the last four national champions are averaging seven first rounders being picked over the two drafts following taking home the title. They do that because they identify and recruit the very best prospects out of high school, develop them, and don’t let them hit the portal.

As someone who graduated from Florida State and still covers the program closely, I have no doubt that the Seminoles have NFL talent. Do they have seven players who will be first-round picks in the next two drafts? Put another way, will quality transfers players the Seminoles added be difference-makers in playoff games? Perhaps we will get the chance to see, as FSU projects to be a favorite in 10 of 12 games. The portal is still in its infancy and is quite fun to follow.

 

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Getafix

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(In which Roach begins with the all-important sub-heading : "Who will land four-star defensive lineman Nigel Smith?", and then proceeds to not answer the question.)

 

Four-star DL Nigel Smith recaps Ohio State trip and previews future visits

Who will land four-star defensive lineman Nigel Smith?

MIKE ROACH

 

Spoiler

 

Four-star DL Nigel Smith recaps Ohio State trip and previews future visits

Who will land four-star defensive lineman Nigel Smith?

MIKE ROACH
 

Few recruits have approached the recruiting process with a more serious mindset than Nigel Smith.

The four-star defensive lineman from Melissa (Texas) holds 36 offers, and he's narrowed down his top schools over time. Last weekend, Smith took his first official visit to Ohio State, and the Buckeyes set the tone with a strong trip.

"It was really fun," Smith said. "I enjoyed it. It set the tone. It was my first official visit, and it was a great one. What stood out to me on this trip was meeting the other recruits. They were fun and I got to hang out with them a lot. I also got to hang out with the actual players on the team. My host (Kenyatta Jackson) was a real cool guy and he is a chill person that wasn't going to BS me. He told me how it was with Ohio State both the good and the bad, so I respect that."

Ohio State defensive line coach Larry Johnson has a legendary reputation among defensive line recruits. Smith said he's watched him coach up close and the proof is in the pudding.

"We have a great relationship," Smith said. "He's one of the top dudes if not the top dude when it comes to development of defensive linemen in general. That's one of the biggest things I love and one of the biggest things I'm looking for in a school. I really like his coaching style. I went to a camp to see how he coaches and I participated in that. I got a lot of drills I've taken from him and I do that on my own. Just from that, he's helped me in my high school career."


Smith's next three trips will take him to three separate powerhouses. Penn State is next with a June 9 date for the visit with trips to Oklahoma (June 16) and Texas A&M (June 23) to follow. The Nittany Lions haven't been talked about a lot in this recruitment, but Smith is excited to see State College.

"I love just how personable they are," he said. "Every time I go down it feels like it's just a family atmosphere. Those guys are just really great people. Coach (James) Franklin, the way he talks and his speeches to the team make you want to throw on pads and get out there already. When he's outside of football, he's a really funny guy. He's a chill dude. He's huge on family and that's one thing I like about a head coach. Coach (Deion) Barnes played under Larry Johnson, so he knows what it's like. He's a younger coach and he's just looking to make his name. I feel like he has the tools and mentality to develop these young players and make a good name for himself."

Oklahoma has been a front runner for Smith over the last year. A big part of that is the record of success the defensive staff has.

"They have a really good history of developing guys when they were at Clemson," Smith said. "Coach (Brent) Venables has a lot of these stats where they were one of the top defenses over a decade plus. He's looking to start that back at OU. He's done it multiple times. It wasn't just at Clemson that he had a top defense. He had it at K-State. The program itself feels like a family atmosphere. There's things set up and there are a couple of things I'll be looking for on this next official visit. They really are a great school and a great fanbase and I feel they will be on the come up after a not-so-great season."

Texas A&M will get the last visit of June. The strength of the Aggie network off the field and his fit in the defense make staying close to home a strong consideration.

"Just the school in general," Smith said. "The A&M fanbase and their alumni base is really good. They obviously didn't have that good of a year, but coach Price has a really good history of developing defensive linemen. Myles Garrett and a couple of other guys come to mind. Myles Garrett is one of my favorite players in the league, so I love a lot of things about it. I love how I fit into their defense. I feel like I fit into it as good, if not better than some of these schools. They use big ends and I'll be about 270 or 275 pounds as a defensive end. I could be a versatile guy coming off the edge playing the run and also going inside and playing three-tech when they bring a 'backer coming off of the edge. I feel like their defense is a great fit for me."

Smith's last official visit will be to Texas in September when the Longhorns host Rice. The trip will come just one week before Smith's scheduled commitment date, and the Longhorns will have a chance to leave a lasting impression.

"It's Texas," Smith said. "They had a pretty good year and the guys they recruited like Anthony Hill and Arch Manning, they are going to have a really good year coming up. In these next couple of years, one of my really good friends Trevor Goosby will be there. I've heard he's doing really good and he's recruiting me as much as he can. We are still staying in contact and talking. Just coach Davis in general, I got to go to a practice and see how he coaches and I really like the way he coaches. If you're not doing something right, he's not going to just yell and dog cuss you. He's going to make sure that if you do it, you're going to do it right. He's a guy that's going to coach me hard."

Starting July 1, recruits will be allowed to take an unlimited number of official visits. While some might take advantage, Smith says that he's comfortable with his process and how it's played out.

"I feel like you shouldn't be taking unlimited official visits," he said. "If you're doing that, that's not really one of your top schools. You're just doing it for the clout or the fun and all these coaches are telling you that you're the best in the world. You should really just have your five schools you're really considering. Nobody is really heavily considering seven or eight schools this late in the process."

At 6-foot-5, 260 pounds, Smith is ranked as the No. 18 DL in the nation and No. 23 overall prospect in Texas, according to 247Sports.

 

 

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Park Gothic

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3 hours ago, Getafix said:

 

(In which Roach begins with the all-important sub-heading : "Who will land four-star defensive lineman Nigel Smith?", and then proceeds to not answer the question.)

 

Four-star DL Nigel Smith recaps Ohio State trip and previews future visits

Who will land four-star defensive lineman Nigel Smith?

MIKE ROACH

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Four-star DL Nigel Smith recaps Ohio State trip and previews future visits

Who will land four-star defensive lineman Nigel Smith?

MIKE ROACH
 

Few recruits have approached the recruiting process with a more serious mindset than Nigel Smith.

The four-star defensive lineman from Melissa (Texas) holds 36 offers, and he's narrowed down his top schools over time. Last weekend, Smith took his first official visit to Ohio State, and the Buckeyes set the tone with a strong trip.

"It was really fun," Smith said. "I enjoyed it. It set the tone. It was my first official visit, and it was a great one. What stood out to me on this trip was meeting the other recruits. They were fun and I got to hang out with them a lot. I also got to hang out with the actual players on the team. My host (Kenyatta Jackson) was a real cool guy and he is a chill person that wasn't going to BS me. He told me how it was with Ohio State both the good and the bad, so I respect that."

Ohio State defensive line coach Larry Johnson has a legendary reputation among defensive line recruits. Smith said he's watched him coach up close and the proof is in the pudding.

"We have a great relationship," Smith said. "He's one of the top dudes if not the top dude when it comes to development of defensive linemen in general. That's one of the biggest things I love and one of the biggest things I'm looking for in a school. I really like his coaching style. I went to a camp to see how he coaches and I participated in that. I got a lot of drills I've taken from him and I do that on my own. Just from that, he's helped me in my high school career."


Smith's next three trips will take him to three separate powerhouses. Penn State is next with a June 9 date for the visit with trips to Oklahoma (June 16) and Texas A&M (June 23) to follow. The Nittany Lions haven't been talked about a lot in this recruitment, but Smith is excited to see State College.

"I love just how personable they are," he said. "Every time I go down it feels like it's just a family atmosphere. Those guys are just really great people. Coach (James) Franklin, the way he talks and his speeches to the team make you want to throw on pads and get out there already. When he's outside of football, he's a really funny guy. He's a chill dude. He's huge on family and that's one thing I like about a head coach. Coach (Deion) Barnes played under Larry Johnson, so he knows what it's like. He's a younger coach and he's just looking to make his name. I feel like he has the tools and mentality to develop these young players and make a good name for himself."

Oklahoma has been a front runner for Smith over the last year. A big part of that is the record of success the defensive staff has.

"They have a really good history of developing guys when they were at Clemson," Smith said. "Coach (Brent) Venables has a lot of these stats where they were one of the top defenses over a decade plus. He's looking to start that back at OU. He's done it multiple times. It wasn't just at Clemson that he had a top defense. He had it at K-State. The program itself feels like a family atmosphere. There's things set up and there are a couple of things I'll be looking for on this next official visit. They really are a great school and a great fanbase and I feel they will be on the come up after a not-so-great season."

Texas A&M will get the last visit of June. The strength of the Aggie network off the field and his fit in the defense make staying close to home a strong consideration.

"Just the school in general," Smith said. "The A&M fanbase and their alumni base is really good. They obviously didn't have that good of a year, but coach Price has a really good history of developing defensive linemen. Myles Garrett and a couple of other guys come to mind. Myles Garrett is one of my favorite players in the league, so I love a lot of things about it. I love how I fit into their defense. I feel like I fit into it as good, if not better than some of these schools. They use big ends and I'll be about 270 or 275 pounds as a defensive end. I could be a versatile guy coming off the edge playing the run and also going inside and playing three-tech when they bring a 'backer coming off of the edge. I feel like their defense is a great fit for me."

Smith's last official visit will be to Texas in September when the Longhorns host Rice. The trip will come just one week before Smith's scheduled commitment date, and the Longhorns will have a chance to leave a lasting impression.

"It's Texas," Smith said. "They had a pretty good year and the guys they recruited like Anthony Hill and Arch Manning, they are going to have a really good year coming up. In these next couple of years, one of my really good friends Trevor Goosby will be there. I've heard he's doing really good and he's recruiting me as much as he can. We are still staying in contact and talking. Just coach Davis in general, I got to go to a practice and see how he coaches and I really like the way he coaches. If you're not doing something right, he's not going to just yell and dog cuss you. He's going to make sure that if you do it, you're going to do it right. He's a guy that's going to coach me hard."

Starting July 1, recruits will be allowed to take an unlimited number of official visits. While some might take advantage, Smith says that he's comfortable with his process and how it's played out.

"I feel like you shouldn't be taking unlimited official visits," he said. "If you're doing that, that's not really one of your top schools. You're just doing it for the clout or the fun and all these coaches are telling you that you're the best in the world. You should really just have your five schools you're really considering. Nobody is really heavily considering seven or eight schools this late in the process."

At 6-foot-5, 260 pounds, Smith is ranked as the No. 18 DL in the nation and No. 23 overall prospect in Texas, according to 247Sports.

 

 

I like that we're getting the final visit before he commits. Wish we had a night game against Rice for it though. 

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