Texas Recruiting Notes 2021

Lhorn · February 4, 2021

The Herman extension was a shit decision. Herman was at his dream job, why rush to extend him when he was (probably) a minimal flight risk?
The best defense for CDC there is that Fenves was the one who pushed for the extension (iirc)

Exactly. It makes no sense from a business standpoint. He hadn’t achieved anything except proving he wasn’t quite the idiot that Strong was and that’s an extremely low bar. There was afaik no threat that he was going to be hired away from us. Not to sound arrogant but this is Texas. At any point we can match or exceed the offer of pretty much any program. He doesn’t have a dream to return to coach his undergrad alma mater. There was zero reason to extend him, except that at level money is like water. You throw it around because it has no value. Unfortunately the price for that is reducing the flexibility to cut loose a guy who continues to prove that he’s over his head.
Ditto for Mack’s raises and extensions. They were throwing money at him when there was zero chance he was leaving for a better job. In Mack’s case at least he had accomplished something. Herman not so much. Overpaying a guy who is doing a great job is forgivable. Overpaying a guy doing a bad job is inexcusable.

closetojumping · February 4, 2021

1 hour ago, Hornlover said:

The bitching about CDC by some of you guys is ridiculous.

The contract extension happened after the 2019 Sugar Bowl win over Georgia, and a Top 3 recruiting ranking. It was certainly justified at the time.

What the fuck else is CDC supposed to do with Herman, other than give him a bullshit vote of confidence and tell everybody Texas is committed to him? Did you seriously want to fire him in the middle of the season during a pandemic season with interrupted practices and games? That's an even bigger disaster. No assistant is going to keep recruiting when they know they are getting axed at the end of the year. Let them try to work their asses off to save their jobs and recruit like motherfuckers. Otherwise, you have a dead-man-walking staff and you just have to hope recruits will stay on board through NSD1 with nobody recruiting them and no idea who the next coach is gonna be. Brilliant.

Or I guess you could try poaching a new coaching staff in October? Good luck with that. I'm sure Urban Meyer was just itching to come out of retirement to work somewhere that fires coaches in the middle of the season.

If you want to bitch about CDC for not firing Herman after the 2019-2020 season, then whatever. The 2020 class was top 10 (mainly cause we only took 20), and a top 5 recruiting class was still a possibility for 2021, even if the on-field results didn't live up to expectations for 2019-2020. There was at least a reasonable chance that with a senior QB and a new coaching staff, the team could win the Big XII in 2020. CDC let Herman try, he sucked a giant dick, and got fired.

What a fucking dumb fucking take.

This post reads like you don't know a fucking thing about what's transpired with CDC and the football program since December of 2019. That's fine if you don't, but the rest of us didn't need to see it proven out in some sort of garish form on this site. Some things should just be kept to yourself.

Dr. Teeth · February 4, 2021

56 minutes ago, Tex Pete said:

Crazy that Nebraska got the best players in Iowa (such that they are) when Iowa and Iowa State are both decent to good and Nebraska sucks ass.

The best TE in Iowa saw Hockenson and Fant get drafted in the first round and Kittle tear up the league and thought maybe he should go to a sinking ship in another corn infested state. Kids today.

Mdhorn · February 4, 2021

"Texas thought it was over when they landed Atascocita tight end Landen King. King opened his recruitment just weeks after shutting it down in a puzzling fashion. After leaning to Texas for the spring and his sister being enrolled in Austin, King didn’t give much feedback on why he decommitted. Nick was actually supposed to see him and other teammates the day he decommitted, but King didn’t show. He flipped to Auburn to play with friend Dematrius Davis following his commitment. Texas actually did call him back when Chad Morris was fired, but King decided he was going to sign with the Tigers."

This take from Roach, just lazy or bury your head in the sand bs. We all know what the deal was and so does Roach. Reading all about these budding relationships which won out due to whatever, or late offers which hurt pride is all great but really lacks the financial impact that SEC schools straight up offer. No Roach, King didn't flip to Auburn to play with his friend and nobody is gullible enough to believe this drivel.

Hornlover · February 4, 2021

55 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

This post reads like you don't know a fucking thing about what's transpired with CDC and the football program since December of 2019. That's fine if you don't, but the rest of us didn't need to see it proven out in some sort of garish form on this site. Some things should just be kept to yourself.

If you want to hate CDC for not firing Tom after the 2020 season and for not firing Shaka, cool, I understand. I'm of the opinion that you shouldn't be firing the Big 3 head coaches every 3 seasons, regardless of my desire to win championships every single year. Eventually, nobody is going to want to coach your team if that's your M.O. But, if you are in the immediate results crew, so be it.

Once the decision to let Herman continue to be the head coach after the 2020 season was made, the cake was baked. There was nothing else to do but let the 2020 season play out.

He gave a tepid vote of confidence, then got the right people on board to pursue Urban and stealthily conduct a search to secure the next best option when it was clear Urban had no desire to coach in Austin. That's the correct way to handle the situation.

Fuck Mike Stoops, and fuck Sark or CDC or whomever thought it was remotely okay to bring him to Texas, but we don't really know enough of the entire story to assess CDC's culpability. In the grand scheme of an athletic director's job, it's a relatively minor fuckup. Patterson had 20 more egregious fuckups in his 2 years on the job (not that he should be anybody's measuring stick).

Tex Pete · February 4, 2021

1 minute ago, Hornlover said:

If you want to hate CDC for not firing Tom after the 2020 season and for not firing Shaka, cool, I understand. I'm of the opinion that you shouldn't be firing the Big 3 head coaches every 3 seasons, regardless of my desire to win championships every single year. Eventually, nobody is going to want to coach your team if that's your M.O. But, if you are in the immediate results crew, so be it.

Excuse me, sir. Looks like you still have a bunch of jizz in the corner of your mouth.

Viper · February 4, 2021

3 minutes ago, Hornlover said:

If but we don't really know enough of the entire story to assess CDC's culpability.

I think I see where you're err'ing in your understanding now

Hornlover · February 4, 2021

1 hour ago, Lhorn said:

Exactly. It makes no sense from a business standpoint. He hadn’t achieved anything except proving he wasn’t quite the idiot that Strong was and that’s an extremely low bar. There was afaik no threat that he was going to be hired away from us. Not to sound arrogant but this is Texas. At any point we can match or exceed the offer of pretty much any program. He doesn’t have a dream to return to coach his undergrad alma mater. There was zero reason to extend him, except that at level money is like water. You throw it around because it has no value. Unfortunately the price for that is reducing the flexibility to cut loose a guy who continues to prove that he’s over his head.
Ditto for Mack’s raises and extensions. They were throwing money at him when there was zero chance he was leaving for a better job. In Mack’s case at least he had accomplished something. Herman not so much. Overpaying a guy who is doing a great job is forgivable. Overpaying a guy doing a bad job is inexcusable.

A contract extension makes sense from an optics standpoint. It makes sense from a "let's stroke this guy's ego" standpoint. It's not like the contract extension made it any more difficult for us to fire the guy.

You have to go tell recruits, BMDs, and season ticket holders - "This guy fucks. He's a baller that we believe in. You should believe in him, too. He's going to win a championship next year" and you do that by giving him a raise and an extension. Otherwise, they're all gonna bail on you, and then you're super-fucked.

Edited February 4, 2021 by Hornlover

Hornlover · February 4, 2021

2 minutes ago, Viper said:

I think I see where you're err'ing in your understanding now

I've read all the same rumors and stories as you. Unless you are Sark, Stoops, CDC, or Jimmy Sexton - then you don't know exactly what happened. You don't know if CDC told Sark, "Hire whoever you want, I don't give a fuck" and then woke up the next morning with 200 angry texts on his phone because he didn't think Sark was regarded enough to hire a goddamned cokeheaded Stoops at Texas.

Jesus Christ, y'all pussies are ready to burn the witch at the stake for something that didn't even end up happening.

closetojumping · February 4, 2021

11 minutes ago, Hornlover said:

If you want to hate CDC for not firing Tom after the 2020 season and for not firing Shaka, cool, I understand. I'm of the opinion that you shouldn't be firing the Big 3 head coaches every 3 seasons, regardless of my desire to win championships every single year. Eventually, nobody is going to want to coach your team if that's your M.O. But, if you are in the immediate results crew, so be it.

Once the decision to let Herman continue to be the head coach after the 2020 season was made, the cake was baked. There was nothing else to do but let the 2020 season play out.

He gave a tepid vote of confidence, then got the right people on board to pursue Urban and stealthily conduct a search to secure the next best option when it was clear Urban had no desire to coach in Austin. That's the correct way to handle the situation.

Fuck Mike Stoops, and fuck Sark or CDC or whomever thought it was remotely okay to bring him to Texas, but we don't really know enough of the entire story to assess CDC's culpability. In the grand scheme of an athletic director's job, it's a relatively minor fuckup. Patterson had 20 more egregious fuckups in his 2 years on the job (not that he should be anybody's measuring stick).

A) I think you meant "2019" instead of "2020" a few times in this post. At least I hope you did.

B) Again, you presume we're all in the dark about what went on, yet then also presume that Crystal Conte ran the process. Both presumptions are wrong. In fact there are posters on this site alone with varying sources or direct knowledge of elements of what happened and it matched up. That's rare.

C) Del Conte has done nothing regarding his handling of the football program to merit the benefit of the doubt. Nothing. Feel free to give it to him anyway, but I'm fine being on the opposite end of the spectrum in which I view a guy making $2million a year, loading up on obvious blunders, with some skepticism at this point.

NTVTXN · February 4, 2021

2 hours ago, Dijon Robinson said:

The Herman extension was a shit decision. Herman was at his dream job, why rush to extend him when he was (probably) a minimal flight risk?

The best defense for CDC there is that Fenves was the one who pushed for the extension (iirc)

Either this (meaning the latter part) or perhaps CDC was simply being aware of the “optics” of his coach winning the Sugar Bowl and not getting that all important “contract bump”; whether it be an extension or the salary itself.

I might be quite obtuse, here- But perhaps he was playing the long game? “Extend” the guy, keep the current & future Classes intact, then make the move when the ideal candidate comes avail.

Edited February 4, 2021 by NTVTXN
TLDR- What @HornLover said

USMCHorn · February 4, 2021

Guys, please. No one gives a fuck.

Tex Pete · February 4, 2021

6 minutes ago, Hornlover said:

Jesus Christ, y'all pussies are ready to burn the witch at the stake for something that didn't even end up happening.

There are aspects of CDC's job performance that I am willing to give a pass on at this point. Allowing Mike Stoops to be a serious candidate for any position at this university is not one of them. It was completely unnecessary and completely unacceptable. It defies logic.

Hornlover · February 4, 2021

1 minute ago, closetojumping said:

A) I think you meant "2019" instead of "2020" a few times in this post. At least I hope you did.

B) Again, you presume we're all in the dark about what went on, yet then also presume that Crystal Conte ran the process. Both presumptions are wrong. In fact there are posters on this site alone with varying sources or direct knowledge of elements of what happened and it matched up. That's rare.

C) Del Conte has done nothing regarding his handling of the football program to merit the benefit of the doubt. Nothing. Feel free to give it to him anyway, but I'm fine being on the opposite end of the spectrum in which I view a guy making $2million a year, loading up on obvious blunders, with some skepticism at this point.

A. Yeah. I meant the 2019-2020 season. The January crossover for Bowl Games and signing day messed me up.

B. If he didn't run the process for the firing/hiring of the football coach, he was at least very actively involved.

C. I get that you dislike him. If you wanted him to make different choices on Herman and Shaka, or handle the Eyes of Texas controversy differently, or nix Stoops earlier, or whatever other complaints... Fine, you're welcome to your viewpoint. He's miles better than Perrin or Patterson, and he's done enough with the new basketball arena, SEZ, gameday experience, fundraising - hell even the softball and WBB hires - that I'm willing to back him at this point.

Tex Pete · February 4, 2021

6 minutes ago, Hornlover said:

He's miles better than Perrin or Patterson,

That's an extremely low bar.

He's miles better than Bozo the clown, too, but I don't think that's anything to brag about.

closetojumping · February 4, 2021

4 minutes ago, Hornlover said:

A. Yeah. I meant the 2019-2020 season. The January crossover for Bowl Games and signing day messed me up.

B. If he didn't run the process for the firing/hiring of the football coach, he was at least very actively involved.

C. I get that you dislike him. If you wanted him to make different choices on Herman and Shaka, or handle the Eyes of Texas controversy differently, or nix Stoops earlier, or whatever other complaints... Fine, you're welcome to your viewpoint. He's miles better than Perrin or Patterson, and he's done enough with the new basketball arena, SEZ, gameday experience, fundraising - hell even the softball and WBB hires - that I'm willing to back him at this point.

"Boy, did you see what he did with the Women's Basketball hire? How about Mike White? Edrick Floreal has been a real gamechanger, hasn't he? Gee wiz. I mean, say what you will about the tenets of non-revenue sports, but at least they're in an upward trajectory. I'll focus on his handling of the football program later, but that's just me."

It's quite bizarre to witness so many people showing up on the boards to defend ... the fucking athletic director. He's a gladhanding money man. He tried to push James Franklin and Sonny Dykes as options. He allowed the hire of Mike Stoops. And yes, that's what happened. He's cockblocking people who know the bagdropping game because someone in compliance is a worrier. But yeah, rally to his position and defend him. Me? I'd rather have whoever is in the AD role at Texas waking up daily with their hair on fire that the public wants them gone and they've got to produce that day, all the fuck over again.

golfclap · February 4, 2021

20 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

B) Again, you presume we're all in the dark about what went on, yet then also presume that Crystal Conte ran the process. Both presumptions are wrong. In fact there are posters on this site alone with varying sources or direct knowledge of elements of what happened and it matched up. That's rare.

I'm not going to go crazy going down this rabbit hole or get deep into this argument but this right here ^^^ you guys need to be VERY aware that this is the absolute truth of the matter. There are people that don't have any correlation that have the exact same information about every single step of the process.

you can try to argue about the Herman extension, or Shaka, or any number of things. You can talk around every aspect of the problem but this is the single thing you need to know ::

This job is too big for CDC.

You don't have to agree, but much like science you don't have to understand or believe it for it to be true. I was incredibly amped about CDCs hire. STOKED. I am appreciative of the game day improvements he made but the truth is that he is a petulant child and has caused a lot of harm to the athletic department with his actions over the past year or so.

UncleBuck · February 4, 2021

6 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

He's cockblocking people who know the bagdropping game because someone in compliance is a worrier

oh mother fucker no!

Jabberwocky · February 4, 2021

2 hours ago, closetojumping said:

Some things should just be kept to yourself.

Prudent words from a poster on a public mesaging forum.

Dijon Robinson · February 4, 2021

1 hour ago, closetojumping said:

I'd rather have whoever is in the AD role at Texas waking up daily with their hair on fire that the public wants them gone and they've got to produce that day, all the fuck over again.

That job sounds like it would suck absolute ass. Why would anyone in their right mind take the AD job as you dream it?

Dr. Teeth · February 4, 2021

28 minutes ago, Dijon Robinson said:

That job sounds like it would suck absolute ass. Why would anyone in their right mind take the AD job as you dream it?

Run Run Run Punt · February 4, 2021

7 hours ago, satyanash said:

(Mike Roach) 2021 Behind the Scenes: How things unfolded for Texas, Part I

It is astonishing how many recruitments that Tom Herman managed to fuck up.

Mdhorn · February 4, 2021

46 minutes ago, Dijon Robinson said:

That job sounds like it would suck absolute ass. Why would anyone in their right mind take the AD job as you dream it?

It does but there are 2 million reasons to care, and even more if you excel. Nobody is saying he has to be perfect, but he's been slow on some absolutely critical hires. And if you choose to let the season play out, then you better damn well have a contingency plan in place immediately afterwards. There's no room for err with recruiting deadlines and the end of the season with early signing now. CDC has to be on the top of his game and we're still waiting on one really essential spot in this equation--Hughes replacement. Where is the second duck in this row because they should have been hired yesterday.

Edited February 4, 2021 by Mdhorn

Barbacoa · February 4, 2021

CDC is a b teamer and this job is over his head. It almost seems like hes trying to fuck up.

LTtxfan · February 4, 2021

24 minutes ago, Barbacoa said:

CDC is a b teamer and this job is over his head. It almost seems like hes trying to fuck up.

Octavian · February 4, 2021

At the end of the day, the AD position is a glorified recruiting/vetting position with some PR thrown in. Sports is a talent business, and AD is just the top of the pyramid. AD has to hire/vet good coaches for each sport, each coach hires/vets good assistants, coaches recruit good players.

Just based on the recruiting departments for different companies/firms that I've interacted with, the best recruiting departments tend to be those who have seen the best talent over and over again. If you do that, you know what to look for. If you've only dealt with mediocre/average people, anyone who is average/above-average is going to look great to you. Problem is, average/above-average doesn't cut it at Texas.

Given CDC's experience, I don't think he'd know a great head coach if that coach slapped him in the face. Average/above-average? Sure. I'm sure someone will throw out Patterson as some meaningless example here, but CDC didn't hire Patterson. I actually think Sark could pan out here, but I attribute that to luck more than CDC's brilliance. And some weird pride situation going on where CDC wants to get "credit" for picking the right coach to turn the program around (not some proven person like Urban).

Lhorn · February 5, 2021

8 hours ago, Hornlover said:

A contract extension makes sense from an optics standpoint. It makes sense from a "let's stroke this guy's ego" standpoint. It's not like the contract extension made it any more difficult for us to fire the guy.

You have to go tell recruits, BMDs, and season ticket holders - "This guy fucks. He's a baller that we believe in. You should believe in him, too. He's going to win a championship next year" and you do that by giving him a raise and an extension. Otherwise, they're all gonna bail on you, and then you're super-fucked.

I agree with the "let's stroke this guy's ego" part. I'm not sure about the rest, but I could be wrong. Ultimately kids want to come to Texas or not want to come to Texas based on the trajectory of the program, the likelihood of winning big, playing on a big stage, feeling like the coach puts them in position to succeed and get drafted etc. I don't think the years left on the coaches contract or his salary played a big factor into whether they believed Herman could deliver on those wishes. Same with fans. The apprehension of signing on to lose 4 and 5 games per year or seeing high level recruits fail to develop isn't overcome by the coaches having superior job security. If CDC thought he was going to fool kids into thinking all was good because we've committed to paying to coach for more years, then I think he's a damn fool. As said before, Hermans wasn't going anywhere. I don't remember anyone clamoring for his services. He was either going to succeed and be at Texas or fail and leave, but committing to paying him more years changes nothing. And as ultimately revealed (to use at least) after his firing, he was not well liked and it was apparently perceived by recruits and their families. So maybe they did try to buy recruits in a sense by feigning support and stability, as i think you've said, but it was always a poor investment even at that time. I understand you're not saying "they had good reason to extend him", just that they had "a" reason and I agree with that. I just feel their reason was shit.

Lhorn · February 5, 2021

BTW, I had to refresh my memory. How the fuck did we go 8-5 (5-4) last year and Herman kept his job? Jeeze

Dijon Robinson · February 5, 2021

5 minutes ago, Lhorn said:

BTW, I had to refresh my memory. How the fuck did we go 8-5 (5-4) last year and Herman kept his job? Jeeze

Because we had just won the Sugar Bowl, our average MOL was about a touchdown and because Herman hadn't yet used his "get out of jail free" card of turning over the entire assistant coaching staff.

Not rationalizing the (non-)decision, just providing context.

Also had to refresh my memory and had to recall how the 2019 Baylor game was probably the most pathetic showing for this team during the Herman era. Just a disgusting afternoon of football.

Edited February 5, 2021 by Dijon Robinson

Lhorn · February 5, 2021

2 minutes ago, Dijon Robinson said:

Because we had just won the Sugar Bowl, our average MOL was about a touchdown and because Herman hadn't yet used his "get out of jail free" card of turning over the entire assistant coaching staff.

I think that was the reason.

Chili dog · February 5, 2021

14 hours ago, closetohumping said:

Yep, reading Roach's behind the scenes article, it appears Tom is his own worst enemy.

And ours.

Coelenterate Fuccboi · February 5, 2021

On 2/4/2021 at 5:43 AM, 1leggedduck said:

I think this kid ends up being a solid contributor. He plays hard.

Things South Austin’s mom says?

TheBryMan81 · February 5, 2021

4 hours ago, Dijon Robinson said:

Because we had just won the Sugar Bowl

Pretty sure the season in question ended with the win over Utah in the Alamo Bowl. Sugar Bowl year we were 10-4 (2018-2019)

BurntOrange&White · February 5, 2021

7 hours ago, Lhorn said:

I agree with the "let's stroke this guy's ego" part. I'm not sure about the rest, but I could be wrong. Ultimately kids want to come to Texas or not want to come to Texas based on the trajectory of the program, the likelihood of winning big, playing on a big stage, feeling like the coach puts them in position to succeed and get drafted etc. I don't think the years left on the coaches contract or his salary played a big factor into whether they believed Herman could deliver on those wishes. Same with fans. The apprehension of signing on to lose 4 and 5 games per year or seeing high level recruits fail to develop isn't overcome by the coaches having superior job security. If CDC thought he was going to fool kids into thinking all was good because we've committed to paying to coach for more years, then I think he's a damn fool. As said before, Hermans wasn't going anywhere. I don't remember anyone clamoring for his services. He was either going to succeed and be at Texas or fail and leave, but committing to paying him more years changes nothing. And as ultimately revealed (to use at least) after his firing, he was not well liked and it was apparently perceived by recruits and their families. So maybe they did try to buy recruits in a sense by feigning support and stability, as i think you've said, but it was always a poor investment even at that time. I understand you're not saying "they had good reason to extend him", just that they had "a" reason and I agree with that. I just feel their reason was shit.

Except it did make it more difficult. Thankfully we had boosters willing to step up to get it done.

Bevo · February 5, 2021

Just wanted to point out that our offensive line recruiting this year breaks my heart.

BornOrange · February 5, 2021

On 2/3/2021 at 5:04 PM, texifornia said:

That movie kicks so much ass

Uhmmm, hate to pick nits here, but that isn't his ass that he's kicking.

Born Burnt · February 5, 2021

8 hours ago, Lhorn said:

How the fuck did we go 8-5 (5-4) last year and Herman kept his job? Jeeze

Machinator · February 5, 2021

IT 2021 cycle recap

Spoiler

By: Eric, Justin, and Gerry

When going behind the scenes at how the 2021 class came together for the Texas Longhorns, you end up covering how it unraveled.

This 2021 group showed signs of promise two summers ago when Katy Tompkins QB Jalen Milroe committed. That commitment, in combination with the dormant 2020 class waking up, created a groundswell of interest from some of the elite prospects in the state.

#Milroe gave the program a much needed shot in the arm before things came undone on the field. Besides on-field play, another issue this class faced was organization behind the scenes. When the new coaches arrived, they pretty much did their own thing and the personnel department was undercut. Consequently we started to see really poor processes across the board.

Breakdown (in order of composite ranking):

OL Donovan Jackson, Bellaire Episcopal (Ohio State): Texas had his attention early on and then even more after Jalen Milroe’s commitment. There was a budding consensus behind the scenes and Jackson’s future was fairly well laid out: spring official visits with the UT visit being last followed by a Texas commitment. But he watched OU sack Sam Ehlinger 9 times and justifiably lost interest in Texas. Ohio State talked him off his timeline and he committed earlier than he originally intended to.

OT Tommy Brockermeyer, Fort Worth All Saints (Alabama) and James Brockermeyer (Alabama): Offering James later than some other schools didn’t scuttle this recruitment, the overall feeling Tom Herman wasn’t the guy was the number one impediment to the whole thing. The second issue was Herb Hand was seen to be lacking both tactically and technically. The Brockermeyers were right on both Herman and Hand. If UT’s academics took a big slide would you sacrifice your kids to the school or send them somewhere more proven? They made the correct call with the information they had. On the bright side, we know they’re very high on Kyle Flood and Steve Sarkisian.

SDE Ja’Tavion Sanders, Denton Ryan (Texas): Getting the state's top athlete from Denton Ryan was a priority that actually got prioritized. Herman was personally involved in this recruitment at an early stage. Sanders committed early in the process, and despite teammate Billy Bowman's flip to OU, Sanders stayed committed. Oklahoma pushed really hard. Evidently Alabama pushed very hard as Sarkisian acknowledged he knew Ja’Tavion well. Sanders was never a big fan of the recruiting process and that early commitment was a big deal. Texas told JTS the same thing when they accepted his pledge and when he signed last week — you can play where you want. That's really all the DE/TE wanted to hear.

ATH Billy Bowman, Denton Ryan (Oklahoma): Billy Badass was one of UT’s first commits in the 2021 class. That lasted over a year, until the Sooners began whispering sweet nothings in his ear. He flipped from Texas to Oklahoma right around the RRS to add insult to injury. His girlfriend playing softball for the Sooners played a role, as did his intentions to play offense and preferring Lincoln Riley to Tom Herman. One thing that was never understood about Bowman's recruitment, he grew up a big fan of the Sooners. While Oklahoma offered late in the process, the flip only happened when Texas didn't perform on the field giving way for Oklahoma to make the flip.

RB LJ Johnson, Cy-Fair (Texas A&M): LJ looked sharp at the SFA Mega Camp two years ago. Corby Meekins followed Johnson around like a puppy dog after he ran a 4.5 (hand timed) at 200 pounds. He was firmly on the UT radar and eventually offered during the Summer of Milroe. He would have committed that September but Texas didn’t push for it. What could have been over very early didn’t finish until NSD2 when he selected A&M. The pressure around Cy-Fair High was always to attend Texas A&M, so the Longhorns had to perform on the field to overcome that pressure. Johnson showed some lack of confidence in his own abilities late in the process with both the Texas and Texas A&M staffs, asking the same questions over and over again about depth chart, expectations, and plan. The new staff questioned his confidence and competitiveness.

LB Clayton Smith, Texas High (Oklahoma): UT was on Smith before anyone. He visited Junior Day two years ago with barely any offers. Texas and Derek Warehime built a strong foundation for this pursuit, but the staff inexplicably ran hot and cold on him. Warehime was let go and it seems they were doing The Who’s on First routine while OU stepped in and stole home. This should have been a Giles layup.

WR Cody Jackson, Richmond Foster (Oklahoma): This would have been a UT layup as well, even with CeeDee Lamb having gone to Foster. Texas was late even though they weren’t all that late according to the calendar. But what we say every year is, a player’s calendar is decided by who is pursuing them when, not what month it is.

SDE Shemar Turner, Desoto (Texas A&M): UT had the lead early on in this recruitment, and Turner has a good amount of ‘Texas kid’ to him, but fell victim to negative recruiting (we never got clarity on what that was over, DeSoto coaches wouldn’t embellish). You know when negative recruiting works? When relationships aren’t strong enough. Texas did end up making up for lost time. Turner’s uncle is a fixture in the community and knew Tom Herman from Herman’s pursuit of Dontrel Wilson in the 2013 class. The staff started to attack this recruitment with a plan and it was working, but it came undone during the season. We left the uncle’s barbershop in August and Gerry looked over and said Mack Brown would have this kid committed in February. Yep.

RB Camar Wheaton, Lakeview Centennial (Alabama): The other top tailback in-state for this cycle had a quiet recruitment on the surface, but lots of mystery behind the scenes. There were times in this pursuit where Texas was close to a verbal pledge, most notably in the spring of his sophomore year then the summer before his senior season. Texas slow-played him in favor of LJ Johnson. It would have worked if they would have won. The networks and star-gazers are way higher on Wheaton than the coaching community.

WR JoJo Earle, Aledo (Alabama). Remember when Texas was one of his only offers? Good times. This set up well early on. The Vaughns’, one of UT’s most vocal sponsors at the time, were close to the Earles. Herman used slot like NFL. JoJo liked the school. But the product on the field trumped everything and Earle flipped from LSU’s record setting receiver group to Bama’s record setting receiver group just before NSD. That Sark can recruit!

OL Savion Byrd, Duncanville (Oklahoma). At one point it was believed by some that Byrd would follow JQJ to wherever he played but Texas struggled to gain traction throughout the process. They were still trying to get him on campus for a student visit this season when even SMU had a better chance. The coaches never had a realistic understanding of where they were with offensive lineman in the class which is why you saw repeated late offers to guys who should have been locks. Just a total breakdown in process.

SDE Tunmise Adeleye, Katy Tompkins (Texas A&M). He’s a big-time prospect with a big personality, for better or worse. After Junior Day 2019, it always felt like other schools were higher priorities to Tunmise. He’d flirt with UT, but the former Ohio State commit was usually whispering negative thoughts about Texas. This would have been another Mack Brown layup.

QB Jalen Milroe, Katy Tompkins (Alabama): Alabama was on him early and he was getting close to committing but Bama took Drake Maye instead. (Maye would later flip to UNC) Then Milroe started looking at A&M but Jimbo Fisher surprisingly took Eli Stowers. Meanwhile, Texas was growing a little peeved by the inability to get “five-star” Preston Stone into the class. Tim Beck was interested in Milroe and visited with him one on one. We believe Herman wasn’t there so he could stall the offer but it was conveyed to Herman they could lock Milroe up and get a boost in recruiting. Herman agreed to the offer and Beck sealed this one up. At the time Stone still wasn’t entirely off the board. Meanwhile, it quickly became Jalen Milroe’s class but he was undone by Texas twice, first on the field, then by Mike Yurcich and the failing recruiting process. Yurcich came in and offered Garrett Nussmeier and Sawyer Robertson, two fine quarterbacks to be sure, but it displayed a very poor understanding of the situation on Yurcich’s part. Milroe didn’t pout he just wanted to understand how they felt about him as a quarterback. He never became comfortable with Yurcich and chose to play for Steve Sarkisian. Given what you know of Sarkisian, how do you blame him?

DE Landon Jackson, Pleasant Grove (LSU): Process-wise, Texas did a good job here. They got in relatively early after Jackson’s first official offer from A&M his freshman year. He visited Austin multiple times, and almost committed to the Horns. But the combination of negative recruiting + LSU pushing 24 hours after they had 14 players selected in the NFL Draft was all Jackson needed. He was never a fan of the recruiting process, and his started at a young age. He’s currently on campus in Baton Rouge.

OL Reuben Fatheree, Richmond Foster (Texas A&M): Again, Texas over-estimated its standing with other offensive linemen and ran far too hot and cold on Fatheree. It really was the worst I’ve ever seen a position group recruited. Ever. No hyperbole.

OL Bryce Foster, Katy Taylor (Texas A&M): He grew up in an A&M household but he liked UT and had a good relationship with Herb Hand. Texas worked the track angle about as well as they could, though their last chance efforts to have him visit for track were done in by Covid. The only way to make up ground was to win and that didn’t happen. Foster was an OU lean for months but A&M put together a good season bolstered by good o-line play and it made sense for him. By the way, his senior year looked like it was supposed to all along. Our rankings must have lit a fire!

DL Marcus Burris, Pleasant Grove (Texas A&M): When Burris visited Texas for the first time, accompanying Landon Jackson, the staff virtually ignored him. It wasn’t until Oscar Giles asserted himself, or more likely, introduced himself, that this recruitment even had a chance. Burris felt most comfortable with Terry Price and the Aggies. Both Pleasant Grove DL really liked Oscar Giles. While Jackson and Texas were close, the staff was never all in on Burris. If Jackson had signed with the Horns, Texas had a shot, though.

QB Preston Stone, Parish Episcopal (SMU): The four-star signal-caller tried to commit to Texas a few times during the cycle, including Junior Day in 2019. UT had him as QB1 for a long time and Stone wanted to commit again in the summer of 2019, but again was held up. The staff shifted its focus and Jalen Milroe became ‘the guy’. Stone then committed/signed with SMU, exactly how his father wanted it all along.

WR Ketron Jackson, Royse City (Arkansas): The athletic Jackson and Texas got real close to a commitment. He even shot a video. But even after his unofficial ‘visit’ to Austin in early summer, Texas couldn’t overcome his relationships with the Arkansas staff. They were late.

QB Garrett Nussmeier, Flower Mound Marcus (LSU): He really liked Yurcich but had connections to the LSU staff that weren’t going to be overcome.

WR Quay Davis, Dallas Skyline (Kansas): The one-time SMU, Texas, and USC commit has off the field issues that didn’t project well to his future decision making. He’s probably thankful KU let him sign. He made some highlight-reel catches in 7v7, but the hype ended there. It’s not often we tell you a kid is a ‘no-go’.

S Andrew Mukuba, LBJ Austin (Clemson): Before Covid shut things down, Texas brought him in the same weekend as Denver Harris and Bobby Taylor. Chris Ash and whoever else then proceeded to give most of their attention to the 2022 guys instead of the 2021 guy. Great process, gang! It was an uphill climb from there. Texas was his emergency school but he didn’t need it. As OU pulled back, Clemson started to pursue. This one should have been a layup.

QB Sawyer Robertson, Lubbock Coronado (Mississippi State): One of the three 2021 QB offers for Mike Yurcich. Robertson, the Lubbock kid, liked Yurcich but loved Leach. That’s going to be fun to watch.

CB Deuce Harmon, Denton Guyer (Texas A&M): Bad process alert! After Texas slow played him with the previous staff, the same thing continued with the new staff. Most egregious, Harmon was a pupil of Jay Valai’s when Valai was a trainer in DFW. How did he not have the pulse of that recruitment? Even if they size queened him as a corner, Harmon could clearly become a nickel or safety. This should have been one of the biggest layups in the class. Credit to A&M.

S JD Coffey, Kennedale (Texas): The old staff went cold on Coffey and then the new staff was slow to turn the heat back up. Ash eventually changed course, pushed, and nabbed the four-star from Kennedale. Before and after the staff changes, Coffey kept his eyes on Oregon. He almost flipped to the Ducks a couple weeks before NSD1.

LB Morice Blackwell, Arlington Martin (Texas): Morice delivered a Mother’s Day commitment. It was a pleasant surprise after it was thought Blackwell was leaning to Baylor or Arkansas and it occurred on the heels of UT missing on South Oak Cliff’s Jaydon Williams.

OL Ezra Dotson-Oyetade, Lakeview Centennial (Arizona State): This boiled down to the coaches having him evaluated as a center and preferring Michael Myslinksi. That’s a questionable evaluation because the big man could surely play guard.

DT Albert Regis, LaPorte (Texas A&M): The former Minnesota commit caught fire last summer, and turned into a Horns-Aggies fight. He was seen as a slight UT lead throughout the summer but A&M turned up the heat at just the right time. At the end of the day, despite the strong effort from Mark Hagen, Texas A&M won out because of program stability. Regis has a very high ceiling and a very low floor.

DE Jordon Thomas, PA Memorial (Texas): One of the earliest entrants to the 2021 class, Thomas was smitten with early advances from UT, LSU, and Texas A&M. The more Giles and the UT staff pushed, the closer to becoming a Longhorn he became.

DT Byron Murphy, Desoto (Texas): The replacement for Regis has a much higher floor. He was committed to Baylor but wasn’t going to turn down Texas if the coaches were genuinely interested. He was a take regardless of Shemar Turner’s intentions, but they were hoping it would help. It would have if the on-field product wouldn’t have failed them.

CB Ishmael Ibraheem, Dallas Kimball (Texas): Jason Washington was on Ibraheem early and Jay Valai picked up where Washington left off. Ibraheem was destined to stay closer to home despite national interest. Both staffs did a good job on this recruitment, and both staffs stuck by him through his legal issues. Those legal issues are universally viewed as an outlier.

OL Austin Uke, Parish Episcopal (Stanford): A Herb Hand special: miss on higher targets, contact the backup plan months later after hemming and hawing about size, and then have to make up a lot of ground. Kyle Flood made a credible push but couldn’t overcome Stanford. The mom has now won out on all of her kids college decisions. She was all USC until Stanford offered, then Austin's recruitment was virtually over in her mind. The mom actually preferred Stanford and Northwestern over Texas.

RB Jonathon Brooks, Hallettsville (Texas): Texas offered early and raced away from the pack before Brooks’ recruitment could even get started. A&M pushed late, though we’re not sure how hard. There are college coaches, not at Texas, who believe he’s the best back in the 2021 instate crop.

WR Hal Presley, Mansfield Summit (Auburn): Interest in Presley arrived too late, but at least he had an offer. *Looks in the general direction of J. Michael Sturdivant*. When Texas finally offered Presley, they failed to ever truly make him a priority. That will be looked back upon unfavorably.

OL Matthew Wykoff, Magnolia (Texas A&M): He was A&M’s if they wanted him. They were unsure at first, then looked around the state, and decided to push. Good process.

LB Terrence Cooks, Shadow Creek (Texas): Texas was in on Cooks early, and it paid dividends. The offer in December, followed by an unofficial visit to Austin in January set the foundation for this commitment. He was basically a lock and wanted to commit a couple of times in the process. He was talked out of it twice because there were concerns about program stability. He visited LSU as a favor which created a bit of a stir, but he had little to no interest in the Tigers.

OL Jonah Miller, Tucson (AZ) Salpointe Catholic (Oregon): At one time, Texas looked good for the Arizona native. The Bijan Robinson buzz seemed to boost the Horns’ favor. Then they didn’t push hard while Oregon did.

TE Lake McRee, Lake Travis (USC): The one-time Texas pledge was briefly a rising prospect, but a mutually parting of the ways occurred early in 2020. He flipped to USC, who had staffers familiar with the tight end’s potential.

TE Landen King, Humble Atascocita (Auburn): The briefest of pledges, King was committed to Texas for almost a month, but flipped to Auburn after North Shore’s Dematrius Davis committed to the Tigers.

Edited February 5, 2021 by Machinator

6th Street · February 5, 2021

TheBryMan81 · February 5, 2021

14 minutes ago, Machinator said:

Meanwhile, Texas was growing a little peeved by the inability to get “five-star” Preston Stone into the class.

14 minutes ago, Machinator said:

The four-star signal-caller tried to commit to Texas a few times during the cycle, including Junior Day in 2019. UT had him as QB1 for a long time and Stone wanted to commit again in the summer of 2019, but again was held up.

So Texas was upset that they couldn't get Stone in the class... Yet he wanted to commit several times? How does that make any sense to the people writing this?

Hiphopopotamos · February 5, 2021

18 minutes ago, Machinator said:

IT 2021 cycle recap

Reveal hidden contents

By: Eric, Justin, and Gerry

When going behind the scenes at how the 2021 class came together for the Texas Longhorns, you end up covering how it unraveled.

This 2021 group showed signs of promise two summers ago when Katy Tompkins QB Jalen Milroe committed. That commitment, in combination with the dormant 2020 class waking up, created a groundswell of interest from some of the elite prospects in the state.

#Milroe gave the program a much needed shot in the arm before things came undone on the field. Besides on-field play, another issue this class faced was organization behind the scenes. When the new coaches arrived, they pretty much did their own thing and the personnel department was undercut. Consequently we started to see really poor processes across the board.

Breakdown (in order of composite ranking):

OL Donovan Jackson, Bellaire Episcopal (Ohio State): Texas had his attention early on and then even more after Jalen Milroe’s commitment. There was a budding consensus behind the scenes and Jackson’s future was fairly well laid out: spring official visits with the UT visit being last followed by a Texas commitment. But he watched OU sack Sam Ehlinger 9 times and justifiably lost interest in Texas. Ohio State talked him off his timeline and he committed earlier than he originally intended to.

OT Tommy Brockermeyer, Fort Worth All Saints (Alabama) and James Brockermeyer (Alabama): Offering James later than some other schools didn’t scuttle this recruitment, the overall feeling Tom Herman wasn’t the guy was the number one impediment to the whole thing. The second issue was Herb Hand was seen to be lacking both tactically and technically. The Brockermeyers were right on both Herman and Hand. If UT’s academics took a big slide would you sacrifice your kids to the school or send them somewhere more proven? They made the correct call with the information they had. On the bright side, we know they’re very high on Kyle Flood and Steve Sarkisian.

SDE Ja’Tavion Sanders, Denton Ryan (Texas): Getting the state's top athlete from Denton Ryan was a priority that actually got prioritized. Herman was personally involved in this recruitment at an early stage. Sanders committed early in the process, and despite teammate Billy Bowman's flip to OU, Sanders stayed committed. Oklahoma pushed really hard. Evidently Alabama pushed very hard as Sarkisian acknowledged he knew Ja’Tavion well. Sanders was never a big fan of the recruiting process and that early commitment was a big deal. Texas told JTS the same thing when they accepted his pledge and when he signed last week — you can play where you want. That's really all the DE/TE wanted to hear.

ATH Billy Bowman, Denton Ryan (Oklahoma): Billy Badass was one of UT’s first commits in the 2021 class. That lasted over a year, until the Sooners began whispering sweet nothings in his ear. He flipped from Texas to Oklahoma right around the RRS to add insult to injury. His girlfriend playing softball for the Sooners played a role, as did his intentions to play offense and preferring Lincoln Riley to Tom Herman. One thing that was never understood about Bowman's recruitment, he grew up a big fan of the Sooners. While Oklahoma offered late in the process, the flip only happened when Texas didn't perform on the field giving way for Oklahoma to make the flip.

RB LJ Johnson, Cy-Fair (Texas A&M): LJ looked sharp at the SFA Mega Camp two years ago. Corby Meekins followed Johnson around like a puppy dog after he ran a 4.5 (hand timed) at 200 pounds. He was firmly on the UT radar and eventually offered during the Summer of Milroe. He would have committed that September but Texas didn’t push for it. What could have been over very early didn’t finish until NSD2 when he selected A&M. The pressure around Cy-Fair High was always to attend Texas A&M, so the Longhorns had to perform on the field to overcome that pressure. Johnson showed some lack of confidence in his own abilities late in the process with both the Texas and Texas A&M staffs, asking the same questions over and over again about depth chart, expectations, and plan. The new staff questioned his confidence and competitiveness.

LB Clayton Smith, Texas High (Oklahoma): UT was on Smith before anyone. He visited Junior Day two years ago with barely any offers. Texas and Derek Warehime built a strong foundation for this pursuit, but the staff inexplicably ran hot and cold on him. Warehime was let go and it seems they were doing The Who’s on First routine while OU stepped in and stole home. This should have been a Giles layup.

WR Cody Jackson, Richmond Foster (Oklahoma): This would have been a UT layup as well, even with CeeDee Lamb having gone to Foster. Texas was late even though they weren’t all that late according to the calendar. But what we say every year is, a player’s calendar is decided by who is pursuing them when, not what month it is.

SDE Shemar Turner, Desoto (Texas A&M): UT had the lead early on in this recruitment, and Turner has a good amount of ‘Texas kid’ to him, but fell victim to negative recruiting (we never got clarity on what that was over, DeSoto coaches wouldn’t embellish). You know when negative recruiting works? When relationships aren’t strong enough. Texas did end up making up for lost time. Turner’s uncle is a fixture in the community and knew Tom Herman from Herman’s pursuit of Dontrel Wilson in the 2013 class. The staff started to attack this recruitment with a plan and it was working, but it came undone during the season. We left the uncle’s barbershop in August and Gerry looked over and said Mack Brown would have this kid committed in February. Yep.

RB Camar Wheaton, Lakeview Centennial (Alabama): The other top tailback in-state for this cycle had a quiet recruitment on the surface, but lots of mystery behind the scenes. There were times in this pursuit where Texas was close to a verbal pledge, most notably in the spring of his sophomore year then the summer before his senior season. Texas slow-played him in favor of LJ Johnson. It would have worked if they would have won. The networks and star-gazers are way higher on Wheaton than the coaching community.

WR JoJo Earle, Aledo (Alabama). Remember when Texas was one of his only offers? Good times. This set up well early on. The Vaughns’, one of UT’s most vocal sponsors at the time, were close to the Earles. Herman used slot like NFL. JoJo liked the school. But the product on the field trumped everything and Earle flipped from LSU’s record setting receiver group to Bama’s record setting receiver group just before NSD. That Sark can recruit!

OL Savion Byrd, Duncanville (Oklahoma). At one point it was believed by some that Byrd would follow JQJ to wherever he played but Texas struggled to gain traction throughout the process. They were still trying to get him on campus for a student visit this season when even SMU had a better chance. The coaches never had a realistic understanding of where they were with offensive lineman in the class which is why you saw repeated late offers to guys who should have been locks. Just a total breakdown in process.

SDE Tunmise Adeleye, Katy Tompkins (Texas A&M). He’s a big-time prospect with a big personality, for better or worse. After Junior Day 2019, it always felt like other schools were higher priorities to Tunmise. He’d flirt with UT, but the former Ohio State commit was usually whispering negative thoughts about Texas. This would have been another Mack Brown layup.

QB Jalen Milroe, Katy Tompkins (Alabama): Alabama was on him early and he was getting close to committing but Bama took Drake Maye instead. (Maye would later flip to UNC) Then Milroe started looking at A&M but Jimbo Fisher surprisingly took Eli Stowers. Meanwhile, Texas was growing a little peeved by the inability to get “five-star” Preston Stone into the class. Tim Beck was interested in Milroe and visited with him one on one. We believe Herman wasn’t there so he could stall the offer but it was conveyed to Herman they could lock Milroe up and get a boost in recruiting. Herman agreed to the offer and Beck sealed this one up. At the time Stone still wasn’t entirely off the board. Meanwhile, it quickly became Jalen Milroe’s class but he was undone by Texas twice, first on the field, then by Mike Yurcich and the failing recruiting process. Yurcich came in and offered Garrett Nussmeier and Sawyer Robertson, two fine quarterbacks to be sure, but it displayed a very poor understanding of the situation on Yurcich’s part. Milroe didn’t pout he just wanted to understand how they felt about him as a quarterback. He never became comfortable with Yurcich and chose to play for Steve Sarkisian. Given what you know of Sarkisian, how do you blame him?

DE Landon Jackson, Pleasant Grove (LSU): Process-wise, Texas did a good job here. They got in relatively early after Jackson’s first official offer from A&M his freshman year. He visited Austin multiple times, and almost committed to the Horns. But the combination of negative recruiting + LSU pushing 24 hours after they had 14 players selected in the NFL Draft was all Jackson needed. He was never a fan of the recruiting process, and his started at a young age. He’s currently on campus in Baton Rouge.

OL Reuben Fatheree, Richmond Foster (Texas A&M): Again, Texas over-estimated its standing with other offensive linemen and ran far too hot and cold on Fatheree. It really was the worst I’ve ever seen a position group recruited. Ever. No hyperbole.

OL Bryce Foster, Katy Taylor (Texas A&M): He grew up in an A&M household but he liked UT and had a good relationship with Herb Hand. Texas worked the track angle about as well as they could, though their last chance efforts to have him visit for track were done in by Covid. The only way to make up ground was to win and that didn’t happen. Foster was an OU lean for months but A&M put together a good season bolstered by good o-line play and it made sense for him. By the way, his senior year looked like it was supposed to all along. Our rankings must have lit a fire!

DL Marcus Burris, Pleasant Grove (Texas A&M): When Burris visited Texas for the first time, accompanying Landon Jackson, the staff virtually ignored him. It wasn’t until Oscar Giles asserted himself, or more likely, introduced himself, that this recruitment even had a chance. Burris felt most comfortable with Terry Price and the Aggies. Both Pleasant Grove DL really liked Oscar Giles. While Jackson and Texas were close, the staff was never all in on Burris. If Jackson had signed with the Horns, Texas had a shot, though.

QB Preston Stone, Parish Episcopal (SMU): The four-star signal-caller tried to commit to Texas a few times during the cycle, including Junior Day in 2019. UT had him as QB1 for a long time and Stone wanted to commit again in the summer of 2019, but again was held up. The staff shifted its focus and Jalen Milroe became ‘the guy’. Stone then committed/signed with SMU, exactly how his father wanted it all along.

WR Ketron Jackson, Royse City (Arkansas): The athletic Jackson and Texas got real close to a commitment. He even shot a video. But even after his unofficial ‘visit’ to Austin in early summer, Texas couldn’t overcome his relationships with the Arkansas staff. They were late.

QB Garrett Nussmeier, Flower Mound Marcus (LSU): He really liked Yurcich but had connections to the LSU staff that weren’t going to be overcome.

WR Quay Davis, Dallas Skyline (Kansas): The one-time SMU, Texas, and USC commit has off the field issues that didn’t project well to his future decision making. He’s probably thankful KU let him sign. He made some highlight-reel catches in 7v7, but the hype ended there. It’s not often we tell you a kid is a ‘no-go’.

S Andrew Mukuba, LBJ Austin (Clemson): Before Covid shut things down, Texas brought him in the same weekend as Denver Harris and Bobby Taylor. Chris Ash and whoever else then proceeded to give most of their attention to the 2022 guys instead of the 2021 guy. Great process, gang! It was an uphill climb from there. Texas was his emergency school but he didn’t need it. As OU pulled back, Clemson started to pursue. This one should have been a layup.

QB Sawyer Robertson, Lubbock Coronado (Mississippi State): One of the three 2021 QB offers for Mike Yurcich. Robertson, the Lubbock kid, liked Yurcich but loved Leach. That’s going to be fun to watch.

CB Deuce Harmon, Denton Guyer (Texas A&M): Bad process alert! After Texas slow played him with the previous staff, the same thing continued with the new staff. Most egregious, Harmon was a pupil of Jay Valai’s when Valai was a trainer in DFW. How did he not have the pulse of that recruitment? Even if they size queened him as a corner, Harmon could clearly become a nickel or safety. This should have been one of the biggest layups in the class. Credit to A&M.

S JD Coffey, Kennedale (Texas): The old staff went cold on Coffey and then the new staff was slow to turn the heat back up. Ash eventually changed course, pushed, and nabbed the four-star from Kennedale. Before and after the staff changes, Coffey kept his eyes on Oregon. He almost flipped to the Ducks a couple weeks before NSD1.

LB Morice Blackwell, Arlington Martin (Texas): Morice delivered a Mother’s Day commitment. It was a pleasant surprise after it was thought Blackwell was leaning to Baylor or Arkansas and it occurred on the heels of UT missing on South Oak Cliff’s Jaydon Williams.

OL Ezra Dotson-Oyetade, Lakeview Centennial (Arizona State): This boiled down to the coaches having him evaluated as a center and preferring Michael Myslinksi. That’s a questionable evaluation because the big man could surely play guard.

DT Albert Regis, LaPorte (Texas A&M): The former Minnesota commit caught fire last summer, and turned into a Horns-Aggies fight. He was seen as a slight UT lead throughout the summer but A&M turned up the heat at just the right time. At the end of the day, despite the strong effort from Mark Hagen, Texas A&M won out because of program stability. Regis has a very high ceiling and a very low floor.

DE Jordon Thomas, PA Memorial (Texas): One of the earliest entrants to the 2021 class, Thomas was smitten with early advances from UT, LSU, and Texas A&M. The more Giles and the UT staff pushed, the closer to becoming a Longhorn he became.

DT Byron Murphy, Desoto (Texas): The replacement for Regis has a much higher floor. He was committed to Baylor but wasn’t going to turn down Texas if the coaches were genuinely interested. He was a take regardless of Shemar Turner’s intentions, but they were hoping it would help. It would have if the on-field product wouldn’t have failed them.

CB Ishmael Ibraheem, Dallas Kimball (Texas): Jason Washington was on Ibraheem early and Jay Valai picked up where Washington left off. Ibraheem was destined to stay closer to home despite national interest. Both staffs did a good job on this recruitment, and both staffs stuck by him through his legal issues. Those legal issues are universally viewed as an outlier.

OL Austin Uke, Parish Episcopal (Stanford): A Herb Hand special: miss on higher targets, contact the backup plan months later after hemming and hawing about size, and then have to make up a lot of ground. Kyle Flood made a credible push but couldn’t overcome Stanford. The mom has now won out on all of her kids college decisions. She was all USC until Stanford offered, then Austin's recruitment was virtually over in her mind. The mom actually preferred Stanford and Northwestern over Texas.

RB Jonathon Brooks, Hallettsville (Texas): Texas offered early and raced away from the pack before Brooks’ recruitment could even get started. A&M pushed late, though we’re not sure how hard. There are college coaches, not at Texas, who believe he’s the best back in the 2021 instate crop.

WR Hal Presley, Mansfield Summit (Auburn): Interest in Presley arrived too late, but at least he had an offer. *Looks in the general direction of J. Michael Sturdivant*. When Texas finally offered Presley, they failed to ever truly make him a priority. That will be looked back upon unfavorably.

OL Matthew Wykoff, Magnolia (Texas A&M): He was A&M’s if they wanted him. They were unsure at first, then looked around the state, and decided to push. Good process.

LB Terrence Cooks, Shadow Creek (Texas): Texas was in on Cooks early, and it paid dividends. The offer in December, followed by an unofficial visit to Austin in January set the foundation for this commitment. He was basically a lock and wanted to commit a couple of times in the process. He was talked out of it twice because there were concerns about program stability. He visited LSU as a favor which created a bit of a stir, but he had little to no interest in the Tigers.

OL Jonah Miller, Tucson (AZ) Salpointe Catholic (Oregon): At one time, Texas looked good for the Arizona native. The Bijan Robinson buzz seemed to boost the Horns’ favor. Then they didn’t push hard while Oregon did.

TE Lake McRee, Lake Travis (USC): The one-time Texas pledge was briefly a rising prospect, but a mutually parting of the ways occurred early in 2020. He flipped to USC, who had staffers familiar with the tight end’s potential.

TE Landen King, Humble Atascocita (Auburn): The briefest of pledges, King was committed to Texas for almost a month, but flipped to Auburn after North Shore’s Dematrius Davis committed to the Tigers.

@satyanash is going to be in his bunk for awhile.

NoName · February 5, 2021

Did the LSR (Ketch) vs Looch vs 247 Composite Comparison again.

Clayton Smith must have talked some shit personally about Looch - dude is the national composite #37 player. NATIONAL. Looch has him as 31 in Texas.

Also Looch says he thinks that JP Richardson (Bucky Richardson's kid) is the #40 player in the State - Composite has him at 162 lol

sorted by Composite:

Ranked by largest StdDev

Looch vs Composite (Looch unranked players are excluded)

Spoiler

LSR (Ketch) vs Composite (LSR unranked players are excluded):

Spoiler

Only Texas + A&M Commits, sorted by composite:

Edited February 5, 2021 by NoName

Ricky's one-hitter · February 5, 2021

50 minutes ago, Machinator said:

IT 2021 cycle recap

Hide contents

By: Eric, Justin, and Gerry

When going behind the scenes at how the 2021 class came together for the Texas Longhorns, you end up covering how it unraveled.

This 2021 group showed signs of promise two summers ago when Katy Tompkins QB Jalen Milroe committed. That commitment, in combination with the dormant 2020 class waking up, created a groundswell of interest from some of the elite prospects in the state.

#Milroe gave the program a much needed shot in the arm before things came undone on the field. Besides on-field play, another issue this class faced was organization behind the scenes. When the new coaches arrived, they pretty much did their own thing and the personnel department was undercut. Consequently we started to see really poor processes across the board.

Breakdown (in order of composite ranking):

OL Donovan Jackson, Bellaire Episcopal (Ohio State): Texas had his attention early on and then even more after Jalen Milroe’s commitment. There was a budding consensus behind the scenes and Jackson’s future was fairly well laid out: spring official visits with the UT visit being last followed by a Texas commitment. But he watched OU sack Sam Ehlinger 9 times and justifiably lost interest in Texas. Ohio State talked him off his timeline and he committed earlier than he originally intended to.

OT Tommy Brockermeyer, Fort Worth All Saints (Alabama) and James Brockermeyer (Alabama): Offering James later than some other schools didn’t scuttle this recruitment, the overall feeling Tom Herman wasn’t the guy was the number one impediment to the whole thing. The second issue was Herb Hand was seen to be lacking both tactically and technically. The Brockermeyers were right on both Herman and Hand. If UT’s academics took a big slide would you sacrifice your kids to the school or send them somewhere more proven? They made the correct call with the information they had. On the bright side, we know they’re very high on Kyle Flood and Steve Sarkisian.

SDE Ja’Tavion Sanders, Denton Ryan (Texas): Getting the state's top athlete from Denton Ryan was a priority that actually got prioritized. Herman was personally involved in this recruitment at an early stage. Sanders committed early in the process, and despite teammate Billy Bowman's flip to OU, Sanders stayed committed. Oklahoma pushed really hard. Evidently Alabama pushed very hard as Sarkisian acknowledged he knew Ja’Tavion well. Sanders was never a big fan of the recruiting process and that early commitment was a big deal. Texas told JTS the same thing when they accepted his pledge and when he signed last week — you can play where you want. That's really all the DE/TE wanted to hear.

ATH Billy Bowman, Denton Ryan (Oklahoma): Billy Badass was one of UT’s first commits in the 2021 class. That lasted over a year, until the Sooners began whispering sweet nothings in his ear. He flipped from Texas to Oklahoma right around the RRS to add insult to injury. His girlfriend playing softball for the Sooners played a role, as did his intentions to play offense and preferring Lincoln Riley to Tom Herman. One thing that was never understood about Bowman's recruitment, he grew up a big fan of the Sooners. While Oklahoma offered late in the process, the flip only happened when Texas didn't perform on the field giving way for Oklahoma to make the flip.

RB LJ Johnson, Cy-Fair (Texas A&M): LJ looked sharp at the SFA Mega Camp two years ago. Corby Meekins followed Johnson around like a puppy dog after he ran a 4.5 (hand timed) at 200 pounds. He was firmly on the UT radar and eventually offered during the Summer of Milroe. He would have committed that September but Texas didn’t push for it. What could have been over very early didn’t finish until NSD2 when he selected A&M. The pressure around Cy-Fair High was always to attend Texas A&M, so the Longhorns had to perform on the field to overcome that pressure. Johnson showed some lack of confidence in his own abilities late in the process with both the Texas and Texas A&M staffs, asking the same questions over and over again about depth chart, expectations, and plan. The new staff questioned his confidence and competitiveness.

LB Clayton Smith, Texas High (Oklahoma): UT was on Smith before anyone. He visited Junior Day two years ago with barely any offers. Texas and Derek Warehime built a strong foundation for this pursuit, but the staff inexplicably ran hot and cold on him. Warehime was let go and it seems they were doing The Who’s on First routine while OU stepped in and stole home. This should have been a Giles layup.

WR Cody Jackson, Richmond Foster (Oklahoma): This would have been a UT layup as well, even with CeeDee Lamb having gone to Foster. Texas was late even though they weren’t all that late according to the calendar. But what we say every year is, a player’s calendar is decided by who is pursuing them when, not what month it is.

SDE Shemar Turner, Desoto (Texas A&M): UT had the lead early on in this recruitment, and Turner has a good amount of ‘Texas kid’ to him, but fell victim to negative recruiting (we never got clarity on what that was over, DeSoto coaches wouldn’t embellish). You know when negative recruiting works? When relationships aren’t strong enough. Texas did end up making up for lost time. Turner’s uncle is a fixture in the community and knew Tom Herman from Herman’s pursuit of Dontrel Wilson in the 2013 class. The staff started to attack this recruitment with a plan and it was working, but it came undone during the season. We left the uncle’s barbershop in August and Gerry looked over and said Mack Brown would have this kid committed in February. Yep.

RB Camar Wheaton, Lakeview Centennial (Alabama): The other top tailback in-state for this cycle had a quiet recruitment on the surface, but lots of mystery behind the scenes. There were times in this pursuit where Texas was close to a verbal pledge, most notably in the spring of his sophomore year then the summer before his senior season. Texas slow-played him in favor of LJ Johnson. It would have worked if they would have won. The networks and star-gazers are way higher on Wheaton than the coaching community.

WR JoJo Earle, Aledo (Alabama). Remember when Texas was one of his only offers? Good times. This set up well early on. The Vaughns’, one of UT’s most vocal sponsors at the time, were close to the Earles. Herman used slot like NFL. JoJo liked the school. But the product on the field trumped everything and Earle flipped from LSU’s record setting receiver group to Bama’s record setting receiver group just before NSD. That Sark can recruit!

OL Savion Byrd, Duncanville (Oklahoma). At one point it was believed by some that Byrd would follow JQJ to wherever he played but Texas struggled to gain traction throughout the process. They were still trying to get him on campus for a student visit this season when even SMU had a better chance. The coaches never had a realistic understanding of where they were with offensive lineman in the class which is why you saw repeated late offers to guys who should have been locks. Just a total breakdown in process.

SDE Tunmise Adeleye, Katy Tompkins (Texas A&M). He’s a big-time prospect with a big personality, for better or worse. After Junior Day 2019, it always felt like other schools were higher priorities to Tunmise. He’d flirt with UT, but the former Ohio State commit was usually whispering negative thoughts about Texas. This would have been another Mack Brown layup.

QB Jalen Milroe, Katy Tompkins (Alabama): Alabama was on him early and he was getting close to committing but Bama took Drake Maye instead. (Maye would later flip to UNC) Then Milroe started looking at A&M but Jimbo Fisher surprisingly took Eli Stowers. Meanwhile, Texas was growing a little peeved by the inability to get “five-star” Preston Stone into the class. Tim Beck was interested in Milroe and visited with him one on one. We believe Herman wasn’t there so he could stall the offer but it was conveyed to Herman they could lock Milroe up and get a boost in recruiting. Herman agreed to the offer and Beck sealed this one up. At the time Stone still wasn’t entirely off the board. Meanwhile, it quickly became Jalen Milroe’s class but he was undone by Texas twice, first on the field, then by Mike Yurcich and the failing recruiting process. Yurcich came in and offered Garrett Nussmeier and Sawyer Robertson, two fine quarterbacks to be sure, but it displayed a very poor understanding of the situation on Yurcich’s part. Milroe didn’t pout he just wanted to understand how they felt about him as a quarterback. He never became comfortable with Yurcich and chose to play for Steve Sarkisian. Given what you know of Sarkisian, how do you blame him?

DE Landon Jackson, Pleasant Grove (LSU): Process-wise, Texas did a good job here. They got in relatively early after Jackson’s first official offer from A&M his freshman year. He visited Austin multiple times, and almost committed to the Horns. But the combination of negative recruiting + LSU pushing 24 hours after they had 14 players selected in the NFL Draft was all Jackson needed. He was never a fan of the recruiting process, and his started at a young age. He’s currently on campus in Baton Rouge.

OL Reuben Fatheree, Richmond Foster (Texas A&M): Again, Texas over-estimated its standing with other offensive linemen and ran far too hot and cold on Fatheree. It really was the worst I’ve ever seen a position group recruited. Ever. No hyperbole.

OL Bryce Foster, Katy Taylor (Texas A&M): He grew up in an A&M household but he liked UT and had a good relationship with Herb Hand. Texas worked the track angle about as well as they could, though their last chance efforts to have him visit for track were done in by Covid. The only way to make up ground was to win and that didn’t happen. Foster was an OU lean for months but A&M put together a good season bolstered by good o-line play and it made sense for him. By the way, his senior year looked like it was supposed to all along. Our rankings must have lit a fire!

DL Marcus Burris, Pleasant Grove (Texas A&M): When Burris visited Texas for the first time, accompanying Landon Jackson, the staff virtually ignored him. It wasn’t until Oscar Giles asserted himself, or more likely, introduced himself, that this recruitment even had a chance. Burris felt most comfortable with Terry Price and the Aggies. Both Pleasant Grove DL really liked Oscar Giles. While Jackson and Texas were close, the staff was never all in on Burris. If Jackson had signed with the Horns, Texas had a shot, though.

QB Preston Stone, Parish Episcopal (SMU): The four-star signal-caller tried to commit to Texas a few times during the cycle, including Junior Day in 2019. UT had him as QB1 for a long time and Stone wanted to commit again in the summer of 2019, but again was held up. The staff shifted its focus and Jalen Milroe became ‘the guy’. Stone then committed/signed with SMU, exactly how his father wanted it all along.

WR Ketron Jackson, Royse City (Arkansas): The athletic Jackson and Texas got real close to a commitment. He even shot a video. But even after his unofficial ‘visit’ to Austin in early summer, Texas couldn’t overcome his relationships with the Arkansas staff. They were late.

QB Garrett Nussmeier, Flower Mound Marcus (LSU): He really liked Yurcich but had connections to the LSU staff that weren’t going to be overcome.

WR Quay Davis, Dallas Skyline (Kansas): The one-time SMU, Texas, and USC commit has off the field issues that didn’t project well to his future decision making. He’s probably thankful KU let him sign. He made some highlight-reel catches in 7v7, but the hype ended there. It’s not often we tell you a kid is a ‘no-go’.

S Andrew Mukuba, LBJ Austin (Clemson): Before Covid shut things down, Texas brought him in the same weekend as Denver Harris and Bobby Taylor. Chris Ash and whoever else then proceeded to give most of their attention to the 2022 guys instead of the 2021 guy. Great process, gang! It was an uphill climb from there. Texas was his emergency school but he didn’t need it. As OU pulled back, Clemson started to pursue. This one should have been a layup.

QB Sawyer Robertson, Lubbock Coronado (Mississippi State): One of the three 2021 QB offers for Mike Yurcich. Robertson, the Lubbock kid, liked Yurcich but loved Leach. That’s going to be fun to watch.

CB Deuce Harmon, Denton Guyer (Texas A&M): Bad process alert! After Texas slow played him with the previous staff, the same thing continued with the new staff. Most egregious, Harmon was a pupil of Jay Valai’s when Valai was a trainer in DFW. How did he not have the pulse of that recruitment? Even if they size queened him as a corner, Harmon could clearly become a nickel or safety. This should have been one of the biggest layups in the class. Credit to A&M.

S JD Coffey, Kennedale (Texas): The old staff went cold on Coffey and then the new staff was slow to turn the heat back up. Ash eventually changed course, pushed, and nabbed the four-star from Kennedale. Before and after the staff changes, Coffey kept his eyes on Oregon. He almost flipped to the Ducks a couple weeks before NSD1.

LB Morice Blackwell, Arlington Martin (Texas): Morice delivered a Mother’s Day commitment. It was a pleasant surprise after it was thought Blackwell was leaning to Baylor or Arkansas and it occurred on the heels of UT missing on South Oak Cliff’s Jaydon Williams.

OL Ezra Dotson-Oyetade, Lakeview Centennial (Arizona State): This boiled down to the coaches having him evaluated as a center and preferring Michael Myslinksi. That’s a questionable evaluation because the big man could surely play guard.

DT Albert Regis, LaPorte (Texas A&M): The former Minnesota commit caught fire last summer, and turned into a Horns-Aggies fight. He was seen as a slight UT lead throughout the summer but A&M turned up the heat at just the right time. At the end of the day, despite the strong effort from Mark Hagen, Texas A&M won out because of program stability. Regis has a very high ceiling and a very low floor.

DE Jordon Thomas, PA Memorial (Texas): One of the earliest entrants to the 2021 class, Thomas was smitten with early advances from UT, LSU, and Texas A&M. The more Giles and the UT staff pushed, the closer to becoming a Longhorn he became.

DT Byron Murphy, Desoto (Texas): The replacement for Regis has a much higher floor. He was committed to Baylor but wasn’t going to turn down Texas if the coaches were genuinely interested. He was a take regardless of Shemar Turner’s intentions, but they were hoping it would help. It would have if the on-field product wouldn’t have failed them.

CB Ishmael Ibraheem, Dallas Kimball (Texas): Jason Washington was on Ibraheem early and Jay Valai picked up where Washington left off. Ibraheem was destined to stay closer to home despite national interest. Both staffs did a good job on this recruitment, and both staffs stuck by him through his legal issues. Those legal issues are universally viewed as an outlier.

OL Austin Uke, Parish Episcopal (Stanford): A Herb Hand special: miss on higher targets, contact the backup plan months later after hemming and hawing about size, and then have to make up a lot of ground. Kyle Flood made a credible push but couldn’t overcome Stanford. The mom has now won out on all of her kids college decisions. She was all USC until Stanford offered, then Austin's recruitment was virtually over in her mind. The mom actually preferred Stanford and Northwestern over Texas.

RB Jonathon Brooks, Hallettsville (Texas): Texas offered early and raced away from the pack before Brooks’ recruitment could even get started. A&M pushed late, though we’re not sure how hard. There are college coaches, not at Texas, who believe he’s the best back in the 2021 instate crop.

WR Hal Presley, Mansfield Summit (Auburn): Interest in Presley arrived too late, but at least he had an offer. *Looks in the general direction of J. Michael Sturdivant*. When Texas finally offered Presley, they failed to ever truly make him a priority. That will be looked back upon unfavorably.

OL Matthew Wykoff, Magnolia (Texas A&M): He was A&M’s if they wanted him. They were unsure at first, then looked around the state, and decided to push. Good process.

LB Terrence Cooks, Shadow Creek (Texas): Texas was in on Cooks early, and it paid dividends. The offer in December, followed by an unofficial visit to Austin in January set the foundation for this commitment. He was basically a lock and wanted to commit a couple of times in the process. He was talked out of it twice because there were concerns about program stability. He visited LSU as a favor which created a bit of a stir, but he had little to no interest in the Tigers.

OL Jonah Miller, Tucson (AZ) Salpointe Catholic (Oregon): At one time, Texas looked good for the Arizona native. The Bijan Robinson buzz seemed to boost the Horns’ favor. Then they didn’t push hard while Oregon did.

TE Lake McRee, Lake Travis (USC): The one-time Texas pledge was briefly a rising prospect, but a mutually parting of the ways occurred early in 2020. He flipped to USC, who had staffers familiar with the tight end’s potential.

TE Landen King, Humble Atascocita (Auburn): The briefest of pledges, King was committed to Texas for almost a month, but flipped to Auburn after North Shore’s Dematrius Davis committed to the Tigers.

This reads like there was no positional big boards. While TH and staff clearly had issues recruiting, Eric and Gerry are either lazy or guessing in lots of spots here.

satyanash · February 5, 2021

53 minutes ago, Machinator said:

IT 2021 cycle recap

OL Donovan Jackson, Bellaire Episcopal (Ohio State): ...he watched OU sack Sam Ehlinger 9 times and justifiably lost interest in Texas.

LB Clayton Smith, Texas High (Oklahoma): ...the staff inexplicably ran hot and cold on him. Warehime was let go and it seems they were doing The Who’s on First routine while OU stepped in and stole home. This should have been a Giles layup.

RB LJ Johnson, Cy-Fair (Texas A&M): ...he would have committed that September but Texas didn’t push for it. What could have been over very early didn’t finish until NSD2 when he selected A&M.

WR Hal Presley, Mansfield Summit (Auburn): ...when Texas finally offered Presley, they failed to ever truly make him a priority. That will be looked back upon unfavorably.

CB Deuce Harmon, Denton Guyer (Texas A&M): After Texas slow played him with the previous staff, the same thing continued with the new staff ...this should have been one of the biggest layups in the class.

OL Austin Uke, Parish Episcopal (Stanford): A Herb Hand special: miss on higher targets, contact the backup plan months later after hemming and hawing about size, and then have to make up a lot of ground.

OL Reuben Fatheree, Richmond Foster (Texas A&M): Again, Texas over-estimated its standing with other offensive linemen and ran far too hot and cold on Fatheree. It really was the worst I’ve ever seen a position group recruited. Ever. No hyperbole.

S Andrew Mukuba, LBJ Austin (Clemson): Texas brought him in the same weekend as Denver Harris and Bobby Taylor. Chris Ash and whoever else then proceeded to give most of their attention to the 2022 guys instead of the 2021 guy. Great process, gang!

Burt Macklin · February 5, 2021

40 minutes ago, NoName said:

Did the LSR (Ketch) vs Looch vs 247 Composite Comparison again.

Clayton Smith must have talked some shit personally about Looch - dude is the national composite #37 player. NATIONAL. Looch has him as 31 in Texas.

Also Looch says he thinks that JP Richardson (Bucky Richardson's kid) is the #40 player in the State - Composite has him at 162 lol

sorted by Composite:

Ranked by largest StdDev

Looch vs Composite (Looch unranked players are excluded)

Reveal hidden contents

LSR (Ketch) vs Composite (LSR unranked players are excluded):

Reveal hidden contents

Only Texas + A&M Commits, sorted by composite:

Is now a bad time to mention how perfect Clayton Smith would’ve been for PK’s defense? He’s basically what you would build in a lab to play that OLB spot.

Sgt. Slaughter · February 5, 2021

1 hour ago, Machinator said:

IT 2021 cycle recap

Reveal hidden contents

By: Eric, Justin, and Gerry

When going behind the scenes at how the 2021 class came together for the Texas Longhorns, you end up covering how it unraveled.

This 2021 group showed signs of promise two summers ago when Katy Tompkins QB Jalen Milroe committed. That commitment, in combination with the dormant 2020 class waking up, created a groundswell of interest from some of the elite prospects in the state.

#Milroe gave the program a much needed shot in the arm before things came undone on the field. Besides on-field play, another issue this class faced was organization behind the scenes. When the new coaches arrived, they pretty much did their own thing and the personnel department was undercut. Consequently we started to see really poor processes across the board.

Breakdown (in order of composite ranking):

OL Donovan Jackson, Bellaire Episcopal (Ohio State): Texas had his attention early on and then even more after Jalen Milroe’s commitment. There was a budding consensus behind the scenes and Jackson’s future was fairly well laid out: spring official visits with the UT visit being last followed by a Texas commitment. But he watched OU sack Sam Ehlinger 9 times and justifiably lost interest in Texas. Ohio State talked him off his timeline and he committed earlier than he originally intended to.

OT Tommy Brockermeyer, Fort Worth All Saints (Alabama) and James Brockermeyer (Alabama): Offering James later than some other schools didn’t scuttle this recruitment, the overall feeling Tom Herman wasn’t the guy was the number one impediment to the whole thing. The second issue was Herb Hand was seen to be lacking both tactically and technically. The Brockermeyers were right on both Herman and Hand. If UT’s academics took a big slide would you sacrifice your kids to the school or send them somewhere more proven? They made the correct call with the information they had. On the bright side, we know they’re very high on Kyle Flood and Steve Sarkisian.

SDE Ja’Tavion Sanders, Denton Ryan (Texas): Getting the state's top athlete from Denton Ryan was a priority that actually got prioritized. Herman was personally involved in this recruitment at an early stage. Sanders committed early in the process, and despite teammate Billy Bowman's flip to OU, Sanders stayed committed. Oklahoma pushed really hard. Evidently Alabama pushed very hard as Sarkisian acknowledged he knew Ja’Tavion well. Sanders was never a big fan of the recruiting process and that early commitment was a big deal. Texas told JTS the same thing when they accepted his pledge and when he signed last week — you can play where you want. That's really all the DE/TE wanted to hear.

ATH Billy Bowman, Denton Ryan (Oklahoma): Billy Badass was one of UT’s first commits in the 2021 class. That lasted over a year, until the Sooners began whispering sweet nothings in his ear. He flipped from Texas to Oklahoma right around the RRS to add insult to injury. His girlfriend playing softball for the Sooners played a role, as did his intentions to play offense and preferring Lincoln Riley to Tom Herman. One thing that was never understood about Bowman's recruitment, he grew up a big fan of the Sooners. While Oklahoma offered late in the process, the flip only happened when Texas didn't perform on the field giving way for Oklahoma to make the flip.

RB LJ Johnson, Cy-Fair (Texas A&M): LJ looked sharp at the SFA Mega Camp two years ago. Corby Meekins followed Johnson around like a puppy dog after he ran a 4.5 (hand timed) at 200 pounds. He was firmly on the UT radar and eventually offered during the Summer of Milroe. He would have committed that September but Texas didn’t push for it. What could have been over very early didn’t finish until NSD2 when he selected A&M. The pressure around Cy-Fair High was always to attend Texas A&M, so the Longhorns had to perform on the field to overcome that pressure. Johnson showed some lack of confidence in his own abilities late in the process with both the Texas and Texas A&M staffs, asking the same questions over and over again about depth chart, expectations, and plan. The new staff questioned his confidence and competitiveness.

LB Clayton Smith, Texas High (Oklahoma): UT was on Smith before anyone. He visited Junior Day two years ago with barely any offers. Texas and Derek Warehime built a strong foundation for this pursuit, but the staff inexplicably ran hot and cold on him. Warehime was let go and it seems they were doing The Who’s on First routine while OU stepped in and stole home. This should have been a Giles layup.

WR Cody Jackson, Richmond Foster (Oklahoma): This would have been a UT layup as well, even with CeeDee Lamb having gone to Foster. Texas was late even though they weren’t all that late according to the calendar. But what we say every year is, a player’s calendar is decided by who is pursuing them when, not what month it is.

SDE Shemar Turner, Desoto (Texas A&M): UT had the lead early on in this recruitment, and Turner has a good amount of ‘Texas kid’ to him, but fell victim to negative recruiting (we never got clarity on what that was over, DeSoto coaches wouldn’t embellish). You know when negative recruiting works? When relationships aren’t strong enough. Texas did end up making up for lost time. Turner’s uncle is a fixture in the community and knew Tom Herman from Herman’s pursuit of Dontrel Wilson in the 2013 class. The staff started to attack this recruitment with a plan and it was working, but it came undone during the season. We left the uncle’s barbershop in August and Gerry looked over and said Mack Brown would have this kid committed in February. Yep.

RB Camar Wheaton, Lakeview Centennial (Alabama): The other top tailback in-state for this cycle had a quiet recruitment on the surface, but lots of mystery behind the scenes. There were times in this pursuit where Texas was close to a verbal pledge, most notably in the spring of his sophomore year then the summer before his senior season. Texas slow-played him in favor of LJ Johnson. It would have worked if they would have won. The networks and star-gazers are way higher on Wheaton than the coaching community.

WR JoJo Earle, Aledo (Alabama). Remember when Texas was one of his only offers? Good times. This set up well early on. The Vaughns’, one of UT’s most vocal sponsors at the time, were close to the Earles. Herman used slot like NFL. JoJo liked the school. But the product on the field trumped everything and Earle flipped from LSU’s record setting receiver group to Bama’s record setting receiver group just before NSD. That Sark can recruit!

OL Savion Byrd, Duncanville (Oklahoma). At one point it was believed by some that Byrd would follow JQJ to wherever he played but Texas struggled to gain traction throughout the process. They were still trying to get him on campus for a student visit this season when even SMU had a better chance. The coaches never had a realistic understanding of where they were with offensive lineman in the class which is why you saw repeated late offers to guys who should have been locks. Just a total breakdown in process.

SDE Tunmise Adeleye, Katy Tompkins (Texas A&M). He’s a big-time prospect with a big personality, for better or worse. After Junior Day 2019, it always felt like other schools were higher priorities to Tunmise. He’d flirt with UT, but the former Ohio State commit was usually whispering negative thoughts about Texas. This would have been another Mack Brown layup.

QB Jalen Milroe, Katy Tompkins (Alabama): Alabama was on him early and he was getting close to committing but Bama took Drake Maye instead. (Maye would later flip to UNC) Then Milroe started looking at A&M but Jimbo Fisher surprisingly took Eli Stowers. Meanwhile, Texas was growing a little peeved by the inability to get “five-star” Preston Stone into the class. Tim Beck was interested in Milroe and visited with him one on one. We believe Herman wasn’t there so he could stall the offer but it was conveyed to Herman they could lock Milroe up and get a boost in recruiting. Herman agreed to the offer and Beck sealed this one up. At the time Stone still wasn’t entirely off the board. Meanwhile, it quickly became Jalen Milroe’s class but he was undone by Texas twice, first on the field, then by Mike Yurcich and the failing recruiting process. Yurcich came in and offered Garrett Nussmeier and Sawyer Robertson, two fine quarterbacks to be sure, but it displayed a very poor understanding of the situation on Yurcich’s part. Milroe didn’t pout he just wanted to understand how they felt about him as a quarterback. He never became comfortable with Yurcich and chose to play for Steve Sarkisian. Given what you know of Sarkisian, how do you blame him?

DE Landon Jackson, Pleasant Grove (LSU): Process-wise, Texas did a good job here. They got in relatively early after Jackson’s first official offer from A&M his freshman year. He visited Austin multiple times, and almost committed to the Horns. But the combination of negative recruiting + LSU pushing 24 hours after they had 14 players selected in the NFL Draft was all Jackson needed. He was never a fan of the recruiting process, and his started at a young age. He’s currently on campus in Baton Rouge.

OL Reuben Fatheree, Richmond Foster (Texas A&M): Again, Texas over-estimated its standing with other offensive linemen and ran far too hot and cold on Fatheree. It really was the worst I’ve ever seen a position group recruited. Ever. No hyperbole.

OL Bryce Foster, Katy Taylor (Texas A&M): He grew up in an A&M household but he liked UT and had a good relationship with Herb Hand. Texas worked the track angle about as well as they could, though their last chance efforts to have him visit for track were done in by Covid. The only way to make up ground was to win and that didn’t happen. Foster was an OU lean for months but A&M put together a good season bolstered by good o-line play and it made sense for him. By the way, his senior year looked like it was supposed to all along. Our rankings must have lit a fire!

DL Marcus Burris, Pleasant Grove (Texas A&M): When Burris visited Texas for the first time, accompanying Landon Jackson, the staff virtually ignored him. It wasn’t until Oscar Giles asserted himself, or more likely, introduced himself, that this recruitment even had a chance. Burris felt most comfortable with Terry Price and the Aggies. Both Pleasant Grove DL really liked Oscar Giles. While Jackson and Texas were close, the staff was never all in on Burris. If Jackson had signed with the Horns, Texas had a shot, though.

QB Preston Stone, Parish Episcopal (SMU): The four-star signal-caller tried to commit to Texas a few times during the cycle, including Junior Day in 2019. UT had him as QB1 for a long time and Stone wanted to commit again in the summer of 2019, but again was held up. The staff shifted its focus and Jalen Milroe became ‘the guy’. Stone then committed/signed with SMU, exactly how his father wanted it all along.

WR Ketron Jackson, Royse City (Arkansas): The athletic Jackson and Texas got real close to a commitment. He even shot a video. But even after his unofficial ‘visit’ to Austin in early summer, Texas couldn’t overcome his relationships with the Arkansas staff. They were late.

QB Garrett Nussmeier, Flower Mound Marcus (LSU): He really liked Yurcich but had connections to the LSU staff that weren’t going to be overcome.

WR Quay Davis, Dallas Skyline (Kansas): The one-time SMU, Texas, and USC commit has off the field issues that didn’t project well to his future decision making. He’s probably thankful KU let him sign. He made some highlight-reel catches in 7v7, but the hype ended there. It’s not often we tell you a kid is a ‘no-go’.

S Andrew Mukuba, LBJ Austin (Clemson): Before Covid shut things down, Texas brought him in the same weekend as Denver Harris and Bobby Taylor. Chris Ash and whoever else then proceeded to give most of their attention to the 2022 guys instead of the 2021 guy. Great process, gang! It was an uphill climb from there. Texas was his emergency school but he didn’t need it. As OU pulled back, Clemson started to pursue. This one should have been a layup.

QB Sawyer Robertson, Lubbock Coronado (Mississippi State): One of the three 2021 QB offers for Mike Yurcich. Robertson, the Lubbock kid, liked Yurcich but loved Leach. That’s going to be fun to watch.

CB Deuce Harmon, Denton Guyer (Texas A&M): Bad process alert! After Texas slow played him with the previous staff, the same thing continued with the new staff. Most egregious, Harmon was a pupil of Jay Valai’s when Valai was a trainer in DFW. How did he not have the pulse of that recruitment? Even if they size queened him as a corner, Harmon could clearly become a nickel or safety. This should have been one of the biggest layups in the class. Credit to A&M.

S JD Coffey, Kennedale (Texas): The old staff went cold on Coffey and then the new staff was slow to turn the heat back up. Ash eventually changed course, pushed, and nabbed the four-star from Kennedale. Before and after the staff changes, Coffey kept his eyes on Oregon. He almost flipped to the Ducks a couple weeks before NSD1.

LB Morice Blackwell, Arlington Martin (Texas): Morice delivered a Mother’s Day commitment. It was a pleasant surprise after it was thought Blackwell was leaning to Baylor or Arkansas and it occurred on the heels of UT missing on South Oak Cliff’s Jaydon Williams.

OL Ezra Dotson-Oyetade, Lakeview Centennial (Arizona State): This boiled down to the coaches having him evaluated as a center and preferring Michael Myslinksi. That’s a questionable evaluation because the big man could surely play guard.

DT Albert Regis, LaPorte (Texas A&M): The former Minnesota commit caught fire last summer, and turned into a Horns-Aggies fight. He was seen as a slight UT lead throughout the summer but A&M turned up the heat at just the right time. At the end of the day, despite the strong effort from Mark Hagen, Texas A&M won out because of program stability. Regis has a very high ceiling and a very low floor.

DE Jordon Thomas, PA Memorial (Texas): One of the earliest entrants to the 2021 class, Thomas was smitten with early advances from UT, LSU, and Texas A&M. The more Giles and the UT staff pushed, the closer to becoming a Longhorn he became.

DT Byron Murphy, Desoto (Texas): The replacement for Regis has a much higher floor. He was committed to Baylor but wasn’t going to turn down Texas if the coaches were genuinely interested. He was a take regardless of Shemar Turner’s intentions, but they were hoping it would help. It would have if the on-field product wouldn’t have failed them.

CB Ishmael Ibraheem, Dallas Kimball (Texas): Jason Washington was on Ibraheem early and Jay Valai picked up where Washington left off. Ibraheem was destined to stay closer to home despite national interest. Both staffs did a good job on this recruitment, and both staffs stuck by him through his legal issues. Those legal issues are universally viewed as an outlier.

OL Austin Uke, Parish Episcopal (Stanford): A Herb Hand special: miss on higher targets, contact the backup plan months later after hemming and hawing about size, and then have to make up a lot of ground. Kyle Flood made a credible push but couldn’t overcome Stanford. The mom has now won out on all of her kids college decisions. She was all USC until Stanford offered, then Austin's recruitment was virtually over in her mind. The mom actually preferred Stanford and Northwestern over Texas.

RB Jonathon Brooks, Hallettsville (Texas): Texas offered early and raced away from the pack before Brooks’ recruitment could even get started. A&M pushed late, though we’re not sure how hard. There are college coaches, not at Texas, who believe he’s the best back in the 2021 instate crop.

WR Hal Presley, Mansfield Summit (Auburn): Interest in Presley arrived too late, but at least he had an offer. *Looks in the general direction of J. Michael Sturdivant*. When Texas finally offered Presley, they failed to ever truly make him a priority. That will be looked back upon unfavorably.

OL Matthew Wykoff, Magnolia (Texas A&M): He was A&M’s if they wanted him. They were unsure at first, then looked around the state, and decided to push. Good process.

LB Terrence Cooks, Shadow Creek (Texas): Texas was in on Cooks early, and it paid dividends. The offer in December, followed by an unofficial visit to Austin in January set the foundation for this commitment. He was basically a lock and wanted to commit a couple of times in the process. He was talked out of it twice because there were concerns about program stability. He visited LSU as a favor which created a bit of a stir, but he had little to no interest in the Tigers.

OL Jonah Miller, Tucson (AZ) Salpointe Catholic (Oregon): At one time, Texas looked good for the Arizona native. The Bijan Robinson buzz seemed to boost the Horns’ favor. Then they didn’t push hard while Oregon did.

TE Lake McRee, Lake Travis (USC): The one-time Texas pledge was briefly a rising prospect, but a mutually parting of the ways occurred early in 2020. He flipped to USC, who had staffers familiar with the tight end’s potential.

TE Landen King, Humble Atascocita (Auburn): The briefest of pledges, King was committed to Texas for almost a month, but flipped to Auburn after North Shore’s Dematrius Davis committed to the Tigers.

Herb Hand recruiting:

Bruh Man · February 5, 2021

We've probably delayed Sark's rebuild by a year because of this mess.

golfclap · February 5, 2021

6 minutes ago, Ricky's one-hitter said:

This reads like there was no positional big boards. While TH and staff clearly had issues recruiting, Eric and Gerry are either lazy or guessing in lots of spots here.

It's full of some absolute bullshit. I mean, it starts with Donovan Jackson. Let me reiterate HE WAS NEVER EVER EVAAAARRRRRRR coming to Texas if tOSU offered. Period. End of discussion. Eric and Gerry both know this. EVERYONE knows this. This is clickbait for the drooling masses. The Preston Stone stuff is all weird wishcasting nonsense with absolutely no basis in reality. Cody Jackson was never coming to Texas and they know better. They are also dancing around when certain kids had handlers/trainers that had a hand out, which I understand that they have to do from their business model - but at the same time, there's no reason to blame bad process or point to a failed relationship or recruiting error by the staff. Just say "Player X wasn't really a good match with this staff." if you don't want to talk about their "uncles".

It also has some of their own weird bullshit like this

Quote

*Looks in the general direction of J. Michael Sturdivant*.

GTFO with this shit. Sturdivant was a productive HS WR. He has decent size and limited athleticism and ended up at Cal. Do they really think that Texas made some kind of recruiting faux pas by not offering him? He's got a PR of 11.27 in the 100 - 4.67 40 - a 4.31 shuttle, his long jump is several feet short of Ike Iwhunnah who is a fucking 280 pound DT.

There were plenty of disasters in this class to cover without having to go the route or wishcasting nonsense or drooling clickbait. the whole article could've covered just the OL recruiting and had plenty of rage-inducing substance because it was such a fucking clusterfuck.

texifornia · February 5, 2021

2 minutes ago, Bruh Man said:

We've probably delayed Sark's rebuild by a year because of this mess.

The mess is in large part what got him fired. Transition classes blow.

Bruh Man · February 5, 2021

1 minute ago, texifornia said:

The mess is in large part what got him fired. Transition classes blow.

This feels worse than a typical transition class for a program of Texas' caliber. We're one or two injuries on the oline from feeling the impact of these misses.

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