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Texas Recruiting Notes 2021

Reese Bennett

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Sgt. Slaughter

Sgt. Slaughter 2841

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5 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

So we lost the Sam Rayburn guy to SMU? Holy shit. There’s nothing left to follow until Herman gets 86’ed. What a pathetic class this will be unless we hire the right guy. Wow. That’s so depressing that I can’t even muster enough energy to be concerned. I’m  simply nonplussed. 

I was going to write a response regarding the fact that we haven’t offered him yet and Yadda Yadda, but I don’t care anymore. Do and behave as you please.

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DT Thirsty Thursday recruiting section

Spoiler

A few new 2021 Offensive Line Names of Interest …

This section is for my recruiting nerds.

You all know that recruiting isn’t going well right now. I don’t have any very positive updates to give you all as far as star recruits are concerned, so I’m going to keep them to myself.

Texas doesn’t have a lot of momentum going right now, but that doesn’t mean that Texas has given up on recruiting or that folks have stopped looking for late bloomers. 

Caden Barnett is a 6’5 305lb Offensive Tackle that also competes in Wrestling and Shot Put and Discus for Northwest High School in Justin, Texas. He lines up at Right Tackle, H-Back, and Defensive End at the 5A classification in Texas. Impressive. Barnett currently only holds offers from programs like UCONN, San Diego State, Louisiana-Monroe, New Mexico State, and Wyoming, while receiving some much increased interest recently from Texas Tech and SMU.

If you take a look at his early season clips from this season, you’ll see a guy that has the makings of what looks like a Power 5 Offensive Guard. In speaking to Barnett, he would be very, very interested in Texas if the Longhorns were to eventually turn their attention to him. 

Enjoy:

 

 

The second guy that I want to show some love to today plays his ball in the DFW Metroplex for Sam Houston High School in Arlington, Texas. 

Zavier Leonard is currently unranked on any recruiting sites, but is committed to Incarnate Word. They know they got a steal and they’re trying to keep it as quiet as possible. 

Leonard goes 6’4 295lbs and he is a guy that would have blown up this spring if not for the pandemic taking place. 

 

Senior Clips (Single-game):

 

Every year, there are low-rated or unranked Offensive Linemen that get selected in the NFL Draft. It’s the most unpredictable position to predict development that there is. I’d be willing to bet that one of these guys turns into a multi-year starter one day. I’d love to hear some of your thoughts on the duo.

 

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satyanash

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Bobby Burton: Thursday

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Chip Brown’s article today makes the problem all the more clear. Tom Herman is the problem. Period. Based on the words of other Texas coaches, Herman has been willfully insubordinate. Trying to pin or deflect this dysfunction onto Texas AD Chris Del Conte, President Jay Hartzell, the Texas board of regents or, most importantly, the football players at the University of Texas is nothing more than classic scapegoating because of Herman’s lack of leadership.

Make no mistake, the real losers here are the players, fans and alumni dragged needlessly into this drama primarily because of one man’s shortcomings. As I have said before, I believe Herman’s lack of leadership is a combination of his own personal hubris - overestimating his own capacity as a coach and thereby his team’s - and part inability to lead and communicate in a consistently clear and positive fashion.

Substantively, Chip’s piece relied on those willing to speak openly, to go on the record. As we all know, to put their name behind their comments is something too rare in today’s media environment (of which I am clearly party to). That’s why this version of events is laid bare and is so clear. Herman either neglected to have the conversations that needed to be had with his team, he didn’t see the importance of them, or both.

The clarity of it all makes me wonder what the value might be of others to say that such a problem rests with any party other than Herman himself. Is it a bizarre scheme to preserve as much of Herman’s buyout as possible? Is it an attempt to sow enough discord within the athletic department and university to somehow stymie the possible attempt to lure Urban Meyer?

I can’t answer that. All I know is that Chip’s reporting matches 100-percent with my own and my sources include members at the highest echelon of the Texas administration and its governing body. It serves as just more proof for what I have already said. Tom Herman should be fired.

 

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Dijon Robinson

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4 minutes ago, satyanash said:

Bobby Burton: Thursday

 

I've been glad to see the other Texas publications (247, IT) rightfully call out Ketchum for that dumbass article. With Anwar carrying water for Herman so often, I honestly wonder whether that article was nothing more than an attempt to take heat off Herman.

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Not a Sock

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2 minutes ago, Bodacious Bevo said:

They've said he should be fired but are weirdly fixated on CDC as well

They are Herman’s mouth piece, but not even they are stupid enough to argue for his job with how pissed off the fan base is with him, but they will throw him a bone by dumping some blame of CDC.

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satyanash

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  (Ian Boyd) Inside the gameplan: Understanding Herman's failure in the Cotton Bowl

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There are a lot of questions and conversations about what is ahead for the Texas Longhorns. The season is in a very bad place after losses to TCU and Oklahoma, a near loss against cellar-dwelling Texas Tech, and looming road trips to Stillwater and Manhattan to play the teams at the top of the standings. Obviously if not for Sam Ehlinger’s heroics when allowed to play with spread spacing and tempo, Texas would have lost to Tech by some margin and been blown out by Oklahoma.

This team is playing pretty weak football. Obviously, most people have accepted it and would like to simply move on. “What’s next? Will Tom Herman be fired? When will that happen? Who can we money-whip to come in and replace him? I thought we were going to be Goliath! What do you mean Goliath lost?” It’s valuable to understand exactly what is going wrong to get a good sense of what can and should come next. So let’s revisit a few major themes in the Red River Shootout.

I thought I had a pretty good idea going into the Red River Shootout of who the 2020 Longhorns were as a team. The truth was more grim than I anticipated but the greater shock had to be for Tom Herman. The Texas gameplan for winning the 2020 Red River Shootout paints a very different picture of what this team was in the eyes of Herman than how I saw things with a somewhat optimistic perspective. Some specifics:

Texas had just picked up a first down and hurried into this 1x3 formation to run the “touchdown play 2.0.” The play includes an often poorly blocked 'now screen' to the bottom where the three receivers are, standard zone-read in the box, and an adjustable route for the solo receiver field which can be a hitch against off coverage or in this case a fade against press-man. Oklahoma had obviously seen the touchdown play 2.0 on film and understood it would hit them at tempo, so they’d have to be well rehearsed beforehand on what defense to call and execute. Here’s how it looks on the chalkboard:

image.png

Let’s start with a crucial detail I didn’t quite capture in my GIF. The joker linebacker bailed outside to the 'now screen' late and the field corner initially showed press-man coverage on the X receiver outside. Texas picked up the joker’s movement, or at least their decision-maker Sam Ehlinger did, but the “press-man” cornerback waited until Ehlinger’s eyes looked away from the isolated X receiver to drop back into off coverage. Tarik Black was pretty much all on his lonesome out there because the nickel (Brendan Radley-Hiles) was tight and shallow to the line of scrimmage. The hitch was there for as big of a gain as Texas could manage with a timely throw and Tarik Black’s ability to break a tackle. Instead Texas chose one of the options Oklahoma wanted them to choose, the zone-read play.

Many will (and have) asked why Ehlinger didn’t pull the ball and keep it, but the will linebacker is in very good position to minimize any gain there and the joker and safeties are going to close on that confined space in an awful hurry. The “right” read is the give (if not the hitch, which is the actual right answer). Texas has five blockers for three defensive linemen, two linebackers (the will is a C-gap player), and then notoriously poor run defender Brendan Radley-Hiles. It’s really five-on-five, there’s no need to take any real account of Radley-Hiles here.

The problem is the nose-tackle stunt Texas failed to pick up and block. The 3-technique came over the top and Christian Jones couldn’t find him because he was trying to climb up to a linebacker, so he stuffs the play.

As I wrote in the preseason, inside zone-read isn’t a good play from a four-wide formation. Teams know how to set their front and run stunts to thwart the blocking or to force the quarterback to give the ball into an inside play with no cutback lane because the unblocked edge player can step inside to close it. The “touchdown play 2.0” is good insofar as it allows you to isolate the X receiver in a good 1-on-1 matchup and to catch the defense unprepared with tempo. The other options should really be window dressing, particularly given how poorly Texas has been blocking the screen option.

Texas failed both in isolating the X receiver or in catching OU unprepared with tempo. The Mike Stoops era is over. Consequently, an opportunity to turn a promising drive into a rout of the defense instead became second-and-10. On the next play they got Josh Moore in a dig-post combination against Woodi Washington and Ehlinger threw a bad ball incomplete.

On the occasions where their gameplan worked and they found 1-on-1 matchups between their outside receivers and the Sooner cornerbacks, they came up empty. Next came third-and-10, where the jack flew by Christian Jones for a sack. If DeMarvion Overshown hadn’t picked off a pass on the ensuing Oklahoma drive this game almost had an early ending with how this drive fizzled. My point with all of this is to demonstrate the degree to which Texas’ gameplan played into the strengths of Oklahoma under Alex Grinch in a rivalry game. The holes in Texas’ gameplan should not have been surprising to the staff.

The structure of the Alex Grinch defense is to use movement and stunts to tie up the run game and pressure the quarterback, play 1-on-1 on the perimeter, and position the safeties to be able keep things under control in the middle of the field. The linebackers are a part of an occasionally amorphous front, often playing as aggressors and almost always playing downhill. The scheme is similar to Chris Ash’s own approach but with an emphasis on stunts and movement up front rather than massive, powerful D-linemen.

Grinch wants you to try and blend the run game with play-action passing. Against the run they’ll use run stunts, speedy personnel, and numbers to choke out your run game and inflict negative plays. Against the pass they’ll disguise, grab, and hold on the back end to limit the efficiency of 1-on-1 shots while using movement and athletes up front to break down your protections. They’re designed to defend the spread run game and play-action. Unless those are your calling cards as an offense (they aren’t) you play into their hands by attacking them in such a fashion.

In a big game like this, they’ll have all your tempo plays and overall formations scouted and well-drilled in the minds of their players. You are going to face very diminishing returns if you simply try to out-execute Oklahoma with your base schemes in the Red River Shootout. This has always been true. They’ve been scouting and preparing for this game like their lives depended on it. Every year. Your greatest rival and enemy can be trusted above most to tell you who you really are.

As it happens, three of the Sooners’ last four games revealed a different approach you can take to attacking their defense. This alternative strategy involves actually attacking their defense, spreading them out beyond what their personnel are designed to match up against and making their linebackers cover in space. Neither Kenneth Murray nor their new cast at linebacker shine when asked to find and match skill players with great change of direction and speed out in space while managing the quarterback scramble.

As it happens, Texas has a lot of players who thrive on quick routes changing direction against linebackers. It’s one of the places on offense where Texas is truly strong. If anything they have too many quick-moving athletes best utilized in the slot. It’s a five-slot offense with a number of “outside receivers,” traditional slots, and tight ends that aren’t particularly good at anything except working from the slot.

Tom Herman looked at his team which struggles to establish the run without tempo, struggles to win outside 1-on-1, has iffy and inexperienced pass protectors, and then an ultra experienced, mobile quarterback surrounded by excellent inside receivers and thought the way to win a must-win game was to maximize the former traits and minimize the strong suits.

The essence of strategy is to play to your strengths while trying to force your opponent to come to grips with their weaknesses. Tom Herman completely played himself in this game. He was a friend to Oklahoma with this gameplan. The sort of friend that pats you on the back and says “you’re okay” when the truth is you need a kick in the pants. Fortunately for the Sooners, they have some more dependable enemies to help reveal how to shore up their team.

The truth should now be clear for Texas. This isn’t a team that can blend the run game and play-action passing outside to beat opponents. That’s never been this team’s strong suit with Sam Ehlinger behind the helm or any of these offensive lines. Ehlinger’s greatest strength has always been making quick decisions from spread passing concepts, improvising when things break down, protecting the football, and adding a power run dimension in key situations. The 2018 team depended on throwing option routes to Lil’Jordan Humphrey matched on linebackers and winning 1-on-1 with Collin Johnson. In 2019 they had Devin Duvernay versus linebackers and occasionally a run game when Ehlinger could bolster it with pass options to the senior slot.

As I’ve noted for years now, Ehlinger’s most deadly deployment would be in the Air Raid which “builds the entire plane” out of what he and this roster do best. Throwing quick routes on compromised defenses from spread formations. Just look how easy this pick-up was for Texas:

This should have been the entire gameplan.

It’s too late now. Even if Texas moves in this direction for the rest of the season they’ve wasted a lot of time, a lot of practices and meetings, fan/alumni good will, and team morale on doing things the Tom Herman way. Chances they move fully in this direction are low anyways. Ehlinger and his receivers doing their best work in spread passing concepts has been an abundantly clear truth for the entire duration of Herman’s career and he hasn’t adapted.

There was once another team that preferred a power-spread approach up at another large land-grant school, pretty far northeast from Austin. We’ll call them the tree nuts. The tree nuts were coached by someone you may have heard of but his name is often in the news and to name him explicitly would be distracting, so we’ll just call him Metro Weber.

Anyways, Weber and the tree nuts had this annual problem in which their rival from the next state over was using a lot of man coverage and run stunts to wreck their run game and reduce the efficiency of their play-action attack. The tree nuts had a four-year starter at quarterback who could pick up tough yards in the run game and make smart decisions but his struggles beating man coverage down the field with a poorly coached wide receiver corps were even greater than Texas’ issues.

So Weber hired a new offensive coach who introduced crossing patterns --mesh in particular but also a dozen variations off mesh -- all of which turned their rivals’ run-blitzing linebackers into liabilities in space as they tried to pick up and match fast-moving slot receivers running free off rubs and pivot routes. Weber and the tree nuts beat their rival 31-20 with this new approach in year one and then 62-39 in the next season. Metro Weber had to leave his post for complicated reasons shortly after but the new offensive coach took over and kept pouring it on 56-37 the next season.

The Longhorns should learn from this Metro Weber figure and use more spread sets and tempo from here on out. Oklahoma is building their defense to stop RPO spread/play-action schemes and they’re only going to get better at it, likely faster than Herman could improve the Texas power-spread approach. The Longhorns need to adapt quickly to make the most of this season and to have any chance if by some miracle (i.e. Ehlinger heroics) they managed to face the Sooners again in the Big 12 title game.

This season was always going to come down to the play of the offense and whether or not Mike Yurcich could help Texas make the most of having a senior Sam Ehlinger at quarterback. Tom Herman had a chance to drastically evolve the approach by hiring Graham Harrell in the offseason and instead decided to upgrade the existing RPO spread/play-action approach.

To make this approach work, particularly if you tracked how Yurcich’s offenses ran in the past, the key was going to be getting great play at outside receiver. This strategy has not played to the strengths of the Texas roster. The attempt to bolster the two-back spread run game, which wasn’t really broken, with outside zone schemes has done virtually nothing to help this team save for making their run game a little more explosive IF they catch opponents tired and struggling to line up against tempo.

The offensive line’s existing problems picking up stunts has not been shored up by another year of Herb Hand’s coaching, nor moving senior tackles Derek Kerstetter and Denzel Okafor inside to center and right guard. If anything, moving Kerstetter has reduced the effectiveness of Texas’ pass protection. The main reason the team even went 5-4 in conference play last season was their ability to pick up third downs from five-wide sets with five-man pass protection.

The Red River Shootout made clear Tom Herman’s ability to self scout his own team and strategize with his hires and oversight is severely lacking. He was hired as an offensive coach and mind who made clear to Texas fans if the offense struggled, he was the one to blame. It’s year four now and the mistakes and failures are piling up. Texas needs offensive direction from a coach with clearer vision. Herman has already wasted the Sam Ehlinger era, which is a monumental failure given that it’s lasted four years. He should not be allowed to waste any others.

 

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NoName

NoName 16305

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4 minutes ago, Thiefery said:

I want to believe the posts on the FIre Herman thread, that Urban is going to be the next coach Dec 1st.  If it is indeed true,  what is the likely hood that Blake takes his sons to meet one last time in Austin with a now, new HC?  Or is that bridge totally over?

 

i can't imagine a visit/trip doesn't at least happen in that scenario. behind the scenes or not

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RGBIII

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1 hour ago, Thiefery said:

I want to believe the posts on the FIre Herman thread, that Urban is going to be the next coach Dec 1st.  If it is indeed true,  what is the likely hood that Blake takes his sons to meet one last time in Austin with a now, new HC?  Or is that bridge totally over?

 

Depends on if they read Surly

 

also...fuck the brocks

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Thiefery

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7 minutes ago, lemonandaturd said:

So if Urban is announced on Dec. 1st, does that give him enough time before early signing day on the 18th to salvage the recruiting class and get his staff in place for recruiting duties?  To me it is a pretty short window.  

If anything, I hope some pushback their signings into February.  But to be honest, I'm ok with what we have right now.  Hoping that he can talk himself into a Brock, because WE NEED OL.  Myslinski probably is going to decommit as well when Urban rightfully fires Hand.  Maybe he can flash his rings and catch the attention of Byrd.. who knows, but if he indeed is the coach, the 22 class is going to be epic

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Viper

Viper 12030

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25 minutes ago, lemonandaturd said:

So if Urban is announced on Dec. 1st, does that give him enough time before early signing day on the 18th to salvage the recruiting class and get his staff in place for recruiting duties?  To me it is a pretty short window.  

 

13 minutes ago, Thiefery said:

If anything, I hope some pushback their signings into February.  But to be honest, I'm ok with what we have right now.  Hoping that he can talk himself into a Brock, because WE NEED OL.  Myslinski probably is going to decommit as well when Urban rightfully fires Hand.  Maybe he can flash his rings and catch the attention of Byrd.. who knows, but if he indeed is the coach, the 22 class is going to be epic

technically (and I know it doesn't really matter because the ncaa is a joke) can't he be talking to the recruits now if he's serious about coaching here, or anywhere really?

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Elmer_Fudd

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26 minutes ago, lemonandaturd said:

So if Urban is announced on Dec. 1st, does that give him enough time before early signing day on the 18th to salvage the recruiting class and get his staff in place for recruiting duties?  To me it is a pretty short window.  

Hopefully LJ and Turner aren't aggy commits by then.

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RGBIII

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1 hour ago, lemonandaturd said:

So if Urban is announced on Dec. 1st, does that give him enough time before early signing day on the 18th to salvage the recruiting class and get his staff in place for recruiting duties?  To me it is a pretty short window.  

Probably not, would be a transition type class but it wouldnt shock me if he flipped a couple that we werent expecting. 22 will just be an absolute monster of a class with a new coach bump plus Ewers plus it being Urban fucking Meyer. And to make up for the shortcomings of the 21 class I would expect a HUGE number of transfers to Texas

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satyanash

satyanash 14281

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(Eric Nahlin) Humidor: The Eyes of Texas are Upon U

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It’s been a combustible week on the Texas internet with the team’s in-game and post-game activity not doing the other one any favors. Let’s quickly backtrack to last Saturday and just moments after the loss.

UTiananmen

The galvanizing picture of Sam Ehlinger standing alone for The Eyes of Texas after pulling his own “Tank Man” impression and willing his team to overtime needs to be put in proper context. The picture may not need to be preserved in the UT 2020 time capsule after all. Or maybe it should, you decide.

After the loss, the Longhorn players relinquished the field to the Sooners for the Golden Hat ceremony. I was told the players didn’t know there would be a singing of The Eyes as there was no band in attendance. Now, this doesn’t mean they would have stayed if @jtsween and the rest of the LHB were there. Most didn’t stay after the UTEP game either, but the key piece is they didn’t know their QB was out there alone. Ehlinger remained on the field giving interviews. As he headed back to the locker room the song came on over the loudspeaker. He stopped and sang the song. He was alone, the picture was snapped, and all hell broke loose.

Per my source, at first his teammates didn’t know he was still out on the field, much less alone. When they realized he wasn’t in the locker room, some trickled out looking for him, notably Ta’Quon Graham. There’s no fracture within the team and certainly no issue between Ehlinger and his teammates. The same couldn’t be said for the fan base, or Tom Herman, and to a lesser degree, Chris Del Conte, and the boosters.

Seeing the issue at hand, Del Conte scheduled a “team” meeting on Monday morning. As we reported, Del Conte addressed the team on Wednesday evening after practice. Practice is where they work to get better; the meeting was to address the issue with the Eyes. I need to spell that out because many a Twitter celeb couldn’t quite figure out why Texas was worried about a song instead of improving the product on the field. Turns out you can do both!

Del Conte didn’t go in there looking for a discussion or anyone’s opinion on the matter. This wasn’t a heart to heart. The school has already met demands and made a lot of concessions. He flatly told the football team what was expected of them just like he told the other teams. The message: stand with your teammates and fans, if you don’t want to sing, don’t sing.

The Texas AD mentioned the issue was ripping the fan base apart. I talked to somebody close to a player who can justifiably be characterized as a team leader. In other words, not a fake leader Herman anointed to appease a certain group within the team. This person said, “They respect the fans. They know the song is sung at weddings and they’ve being singing it since they were five-years old. They don’t think the fans are racist in any way for singing it. Some don’t want to sing it just because they’re expected to and they’re personally not comfortable with it based on what they know of it.” I wish I could share the audio because it comes across in such a good, heartfelt tone. There’s nothing militant about it. There’s no anger behind it. For most, this isn’t iconoclasm.

The truth is — and we mentioned this in the summer — most on the team are simply going with the flow. They don’t want issues in the locker room, social or otherwise, and they simply want to support their teammates. The most vocal group aren’t large in numbers, but they do pressure others to follow them. There is no divide along racial lines. In fact, many of the black players agree with standing for the school song, rather than leaving the field or protesting in any way.

From a leadership perspective, Herman couldn’t have handled this situation any worse, but right now the fallout from the song is the least of his concerns.

CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE

As you can imagine, we’ve been talking to sources of all stripes of late. We keep a handy little Google Doc where we store everything we hear, no matter how minor. It makes it easier to keep track of the situation, plus it makes it rather clear where the information overlaps and corroborates. What we can share we will, and also tell you how much credence we give it. We’ll base that either on how many times we’ve heard it, or by who told us. You’re only as good as your sources and some sources are better than others. You’re also as bad as their agendas, but it’s typically not hard to read through agendas. Step 1 is caring to do so.

Scenario 1: The U in the title of this Humidor, you know, the strong, centralizing figure, is in play.

This is a delicate subject but if you think we would have hinted in his direction in the Scoop just for the fun of it, you haven’t been reading closely. In the span of 10 days we’ve gone from ’he will never coach at Texas,’ to Lee Corso’s favorite saying. We think the trilateral commission of president, AD, and BoR, would sign off on such a hire. Del Conte‘s mindset isn’t to win at all costs, but it’s to win at a lot of them. If he never coaches at Texas, it isn’t because he was found to be unsavory.

Credence: Money could become an issue. So too could another job potentially popping up. If this hire wasn’t doable word would have filtered out by now. If you want him to be the hire, no news is good news for now.

Scenario 2: No deal can be struck with option #1, due to financial constraints Herman returns.

I’ve heard this a couple of times, including on Thursday, and from somebody I hold in high regard. The thinking is money is just too tight to make a move unless it’s for a sure thing and there aren’t many sure things beyond death, taxes, and FITH.

Credence: We believe the money for action will be there when it’s needed. Herman doesn’t have many allies, and at this point, we can’t see this scenario unless he goes on a big winning streak, and by that, we mean probably the rest of the games. Absent a very impressive run of games, the only way he’d return is if the boosters didn’t want to foot the bill for his buyout. You can probably recall what we’ve been writing about how the boosters view Herman. Del Conte would have to rustle up a really bad alternative to Herman for the boosters to sit on their wallets. That’s highly unlikely, even in what looks like a limited field. The recruiting situation is also a factor that favors change, that is: the 2021 class is in poor shape, but 2022 can still be great.

Scenario 3: No deal can be struck with option #1, comprehensive search ensues.

Comprehensive search doesn’t mean you begin in late November and extend it well into December. Del Conte should be operating on this track in tandem with Scenario #1. I’m sure he is to some degree. We’ve heard a couple names of interest. We’ll hold them for now. One is widely mentioned; one we haven’t seen mentioned yet. That’ll give you something to ponder this weekend.

Credence: This scenario could definitely take place. It might even be the most likely depending on how you view Scenario 1.

For now there’s no job opening and it isn’t truly guaranteed it will open. But, if Del Conte doesn’t make a move, all those cardboard cutouts you currently see in stadiums nationwide will come in handy as the school opens its newly expanded stadium next fall. Now that sounds costly.

BAYLOR LOOMS?

The Baylor Bears currently sit at 2-3. That’s two games played and three games postponed for the 1-1 Bears. Next week’s game between Texas and Baylor is under question. I don’t even know what’s public on their situation, but I’ve heard the big issue is contact tracing. It appears they finally got good usage out of all those ankle monitors. Yeah, you just turn those suckers on and you know where people are at all times.

Something is clearly broken with how first-year head coach Dave Aranda has gone about defending against Covid. We’ll see if they can get things under control in time to play a week from Saturday. Of course Texas is preparing as if the game will be played. We’ve heard practices have been great and there’s a real sense of urgency. That’s not true, we didn’t hear either of those things, but we have heard some positives whether fans want those positives to exist or not.

Within the team, there's a strong group that is vocal about winning out. The names won’t surprise you: Sam Ehlinger, Joseph Ossai, Josh Thompson, and Keondre Coburn have all been singled out for their vocal leadership. These players are making a concerted effort to keep the team positive and eager to prepare for Baylor.

Frankly, we were expecting to hear about a fractured team, one that has started to tune out the coaches but that is not the case. The players still believe in the coaches and vice versa. The sense on the team is the coaches are doing a better job of putting players in positions to make plays than fans think. The players blame themselves for lack of discipline, mental errors, and letting their technique get away from them. There is a palpable sense of accountability with the players.

Tom Herman made sure to have energetic practices this week by practicing good on good. The first team defense and first team offense went against each other in hopes of improving team discipline. You don’t have to play as sharp or with as much intensity practicing against the scout team. Of course they’ve spent a lot of time working on technique and fundamentals. None of this is meant to make you think they’re improving, or they’ll win out, it’s just to tell you how they‘ve spent their time.

On the downside, we’ve heard the head coach is too involved on the offensive side of the ball, which is pretty evident watching the games. Herman has a governor on ”offensive coordinator” Mike Yurcich. Herman basically admitted that in his postgame press conference when he grumbled about tempo. We may go into more detail here at another point in time.

Aside coverage busts the feeling behind the scenes is the defense continues to show improvement. I mentioned to a source they looked tired in Dallas and got back a derisive, “they were on the field too much.” Not-so-complementary football, imo. Many impatient fans are wondering why Herman hasn’t been fired yet. Aside the obvious, he’s only four games into the season, we’d say it’s because he hasn’t lost the team.

A couple weeks ago we wrote a piece about the 2018 class titled “It’s now or next year.” It was written within the context of the TCU, OU, Baylor, Oklahoma State four game stretch. For Tom Herman, it’s now or never starting with the next two games.

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Dijon Robinson

Dijon Robinson 1511

Posted
Posted (edited)
18 minutes ago, RGBIII said:

Losing LJ and Camar really sucks but Jonathan Brooks looks like a stud. Should easily be a 4 star

We're at the top of the list for at least three great to elite 2022 RBs. If our HC hire is halfway exciting we should make up the difference in 2022.

Edited by ChampionshipLevelPiss
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Burt Macklin

Burt Macklin 18998

Posted
Posted
38 minutes ago, RGBIII said:

Probably not, would be a transition type class but it wouldnt shock me if he flipped a couple that we werent expecting. 22 will just be an absolute monster of a class with a new coach bump plus Ewers plus it being Urban fucking Meyer. And to make up for the shortcomings of the 21 class I would expect a HUGE number of transfers to Texas

Definitely agree the 21 class is still going to be a transition class even if we get Meyer. It’s just too late at this point, but it’s also not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things as we long as we get the right coach. 

Unless the NCAA changes the rules before the free transfer rule goes into place, we can’t take that many transfers because of the 25 signee rule. Every transfer we take would be pushing a 22 HS recruit out of the class, so I expect the staff would only use them in a limited fashion for serious positions of need like LB and OL. 

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RGBIII

RGBIII 22798

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, Burt Macklin said:

Definitely agree the 21 class is still going to be a transition class even if we get Meyer. It’s just too late at this point, but it’s also not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things as we long as we get the right coach. 

Unless the NCAA changes the rules before the free transfer rule goes into place, we can’t take that many transfers because of the 25 signee rule. Every transfer we take would be pushing a 22 HS recruit out of the class, so I expect the staff would only use them in a limited fashion for serious positions of need like LB and OL. 

Ah, I figured it would count against the 21 signee rule which is why we would take a limited class. Hopefully there are a lot of early enrollees

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Burt Macklin

Burt Macklin 18998

Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, RGBIII said:

Ah, I figured it would count against the 21 signee rule which is why we would take a limited class. Hopefully there are a lot of early enrollees

Some of them can depending on timing of signing, but even counters for 21 affects how many you can count back in the 22 class if you want to sign a large class in 22, which I’m sure we will.
Ultimately, you get 100 signers over 4 years to make up an 85 man roster so you can’t go too crazy with older transfers because you already have attrition in those 100 due to not qualifying or them leaving and you can get stuck in a spot where you struggle to have 85 scholarship players. 

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RGBIII

RGBIII 22798

Posted
Posted
Just now, Burt Macklin said:

Some of them can depending on timing of signing, but even counters for 21 affects how many you can count back in the 22 class if you want to sign a large class in 22, which I’m sure we will.
Ultimately, you get 100 signers over 4 years to make up an 85 man roster so you can’t go too crazy with older transfers because you already have attrition in those 100 due to not qualifying or them leaving and you can get stuck in a spot where you struggle to have 85 scholarship players. 

Think any of that will be altered with the not losing a year of eligibility rule this year? That will be some hard math if there are quite a few returning seniors

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LTtxfan

LTtxfan 48980

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Thiefery said:

If anything, I hope some pushback their signings into February.  But to be honest, I'm ok with what we have right now.  Hoping that he can talk himself into a Brock, because WE NEED OL.  Myslinski probably is going to decommit as well when Urban rightfully fires Hand.  Maybe he can flash his rings and catch the attention of Byrd.. who knows, but if he indeed is the coach, the 22 class is going to be epic

Also, a smaller 2021 class opens the door for more transfers that might have immediate eligibility...

 

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Laga4

Laga4 1270

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, lemonandaturd said:

So if Urban is announced on Dec. 1st, does that give him enough time before early signing day on the 18th to salvage the recruiting class and get his staff in place for recruiting duties?  To me it is a pretty short window.  

I think if it's a done deal by Dec. 1,  he could get a flip or 2 and maybe a couple that are maybes right now and at least make it one hell of a transition class.  

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