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Texas Recruiting Notes 2026: They Can't Keep Getting Away With This


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Posted
3 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

Gerry on the OL this morning:

The Texas OL recruiting board: The OT's, IOL's & swing prospects

OnTexasFootball takes an updated look at the 2026 offensive line recruiting board with Oregon commit and 4-star++ right tackle Kodi Greene (Santa Ana, Calif./Mater Dei) having set up his official visit for June 13-15th. 

Texas currently has nine offensive lineman locked in with official visit dates for June, and that number is expected to go as high as 12 in the coming weeks. 

With one commitment, there are four or five spots remaining with a class of six being very possible coming off classes of signing three (2024) and four (2025). 

OTF breaks down the board by position along the offensive line. There are three position groups - tackles, IOL's and swing players. 

The tackles ...

John Turntine III, LT, Fort Worth (Texas) North Crowley
OnTexasFootball ranking: 5-star
Texas OV: June 20
Where it stands: Texas has led for months. Will the entire circle be on the same page? We shall see.

Samuel Roseborough, RT, Clearwater (Fla.) High
OnTexasFootball ranking: 4-star++
Texas OV: June 20
Where it stands: OTF believes Texas leads the Florida schools and SEC schools currently. With mom moving to Austin recently for work, the Horns have a nice advantage right now. 

Kodie Greene, RT, Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei - *Oregon commit
OnTexasFootball ranking: 4-star++
Texas OV: June 13
Where it stands: Texas is expected to receive a spring UOV, prior to the official visit. 

Felix Ojo, OT, Mansfield (Texas) Lake Ridge
OnTexasFootball ranking: 4-star++
Texas OV: June 13
Where it stands: Texas has been in a pretty good spot since mid-way through the 2024 season. 

Sam Utu, OT, Orange (Calif.) Lutheran
OnTexasFootball ranking: 4-star++
Texas OV: June 20
Where it stands: Texas quietly leads for one of the more athletic offensive line prospects in the 2026 cycle. There is a key Texas tie withing Utu's circle. 

Keenyi Pepe, OT, Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy
OnTexasFootball ranking: 4-star++
Texas OV: TBD
Where it stands: Kyle Flood was by IMG Academy in late January, and the Horns believe an OV will happen. 

The swing players ...

Max Wright, IOL/OT, Melissa (Texas) High #AllGasNoBrakes
OnTexasFootball ranking: 4-star

Malakai Lee, IOL/OT, Honolulu (Hi.) Kamehameha
OnTexasFootball ranking: 4-star+
Texas OV: TBD
Where it stands: OnTexasFootball believes the Longhorns will get at least a spring UOV, and potentially an OV as well. Michigan, Texas, BYU, Georgia, Alabama and USC make up the list. 

The IOL's ...

Toa Katoa, IOL, Euless (Texas) Trinity
OnTexasFootball ranking: 4-star+
Texas OV: June 13
Where it stands: OnTexasFootball believe The Longhorns continue to lead Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas A&M and BYU. 

Nicolas Robertson, IOL, Klein (Texas) High
OnTexasFootball ranking: 4-star+
Texas OV: June 13
Where it stands: OnTexasFootball believe The Longhorns continue to lead large. 

Zaden Krempin, IOL, Prosper (Texas) High
OnTexasFootball ranking: 4-star
Texas OV: June 13
Where it stands: If Krempin is dead set on playing tackle at the next level, Texas will will fall by the wayside. If he is open to G/C, the Horns will be in it until the end. 

Breck Kolojay, IOL, Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy
OnTexasFootball ranking: 4-star
Texas OV: TBD
Where it stands: Kyle Flood was by IMG Academy in late January. The Denver native has been on campus before, and is expected to return. 

I know that Gerry knows his shit, but this seems implausible. Not a lot of 6’8” dudes on the IOL.

Posted
15 minutes ago, IDIOTsavant said:

I know that Gerry knows his shit, but this seems implausible. Not a lot of 6’8” dudes on the IOL.

His feet must be that bad, or he's as flexible as a rhino. Either way, it's too early to think about T. Nickelson 2.0 on skates at tackle. 

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Posted
45 minutes ago, Mother mopar said:

His feet must be that bad, or he's as flexible as a rhino. Either way, it's too early to think about T. Nickelson 2.0 on skates at tackle. 

Yeah, but if his feet were that bad, why would we take him now? Just seems incredibly odd if that’s the eval.

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Posted
55 minutes ago, UDontKnow said:

If Flood is trying to build a Philadelphia Eagles type of OL, I am gruntled.

26 minutes ago, tokamak said:

Damn, Flood is trying to go balls deep this year. 

flood has been recruiting “big humans” and supposedly building a Death Star OL for years.  it doesn’t matter if they can’t dominate a game. 

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Posted
2 hours ago, IDIOTsavant said:

I know that Gerry knows his shit, but this seems implausible. Not a lot of 6’8” dudes on the IOL.

I believe Wright measured in at 6-6 1/2 on junior day.

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Posted
5 hours ago, futureman said:

flood has been recruiting “big humans” and supposedly building a Death Star OL for years.  it doesn’t matter if they can’t dominate a game. 

Yeah OL so much worse now than it was over the last twenty years.

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Posted
1 hour ago, skipmcgee said:

Yeah OL so much worse now than it was over the last twenty years.

improvement is great but we’re trying to win our last game of the season.  run game still disappears too much. 

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Posted

It was an odd choice to recruit "big humans" then go to zone blocking schemes, particularly outside zone, as the main running game scheme. I know it was because of Majors and Connor, but having a center and LG that were built for outside zone scheme that favors quick, light feet linemen combined with a RG and RT that are built for power schemes was a weird mix. That hurt them a lot last season. 

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Posted
2 minutes ago, Hermanator said:

It was an odd choice to recruit "big humans" then go to zone blocking schemes, particularly outside zone, as the main running game scheme. I know it was because of Majors and Connor, but having a center and LG that were built for outside zone scheme that favors quick, light feet linemen combined with a RG and RT that are built for power schemes was a weird mix. That hurt them a lot last season. 

Having to use Wisner and Blu as our workhorse backs hurt more.

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Posted
13 minutes ago, TexasRenegade said:

Having to use Wisner and Blu as our workhorse backs hurt more.

No running back, not even Bijan, was going to run on Georgia, Arizona State, and Ohio State with the way the line blocked those games

Posted
5 hours ago, Hermanator said:

No running back, not even Bijan, was going to run on Georgia, Arizona State, and Ohio State with the way the line blocked those games

But I was told Ewers should have

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Posted

(Eric Nahlin) The Economics of NIL: How Texas Football Builds an Elite Offense

Quote

Recruiting class composition is far more intricate than most fans realize. Several variables come into play, with supply and demand being the most fundamental. It has always worked this way, but since the legalization of NIL in 2021, Texas has become a more active participant. We’re talking market economics. Fans of schools that recruit at an elite level have a certain expectation: every recruit should be at least a four-star prospect. 

That’s the network effect, but it’s artificial. The real market is determined by schools, agents, and occasionally an overinvolved uncle who’s on his way to irrelevance. The true determinant is simple: how rare is the prospect, and how badly does my school need him? Again, supply and demand.

Quarterbacks

There are no cheap quarterbacks worth having—there are only affordable ones. You might get somebody to sign relatively cheap, but if he’s about to be the starter for a top-25 team, it’s going to cost. Texas has Arch Manning, Trey Owens, and KJ Lacey on the roster. Dia Bell is committed in the 2026 class. [Apropos of nothing, I think Arch and Dia have similar skillsets] An expensive room, but potentially a program-defining room—and I don’t just mean the notable bookends.

Running Back

College isn’t the NFL. College running backs would feature more numerously in a college draft. Running backs totally dominate Pop Warner while quarterbacks are growing into their noodle arms. Running backs still dominate in high school while quarterback arms are al dente. Running backs, still in fairly large numbers, can dominate in college. In the pros, however, running backs are much more fungible. Texas has a nice mix of good and potentially dominant talents on the roster, and, after the 2025 recruiting cycle, is on a dominant 2026 recruiting cycle.

Tight End

I have no concept of the tight end market. The only two truly talented tight ends I can recall transferring in recent years are Max Klare and Jalin Conyers. You could say Eli Stowers, but he doesn’t really count—he was a quarterback up until he transferred to Vanderbilt. [Apropos of something, I told Aggie fans tight end might be in his future. Ha ha ha ha! Funny story: I recall telling my friend, who was an OC in the Big 12 at the time, that he should push for Stowers because he’d be a great tight end if quarterback didn’t work out and he agreed]

This is an ‘evaluation’ position. Tight ends don’t have to be a freak athlete to be a good player. Average blockers who can somewhat catch, or good receivers who can somewhat block, just need to be available. The absence of studs is telling of their value.

Wide Receiver

One elite receiver is nearly as valuable as a quarterback. Ian Boyd would say a receiver is more valuable, but I’d argue against that because the quarterback is tasked with extracting the most value out of five receiving threats rather than one threat who would thrive with average QB throwing him jump balls. They’re not all individual unicorns like Jeremiah Smith, aka, that one really expensive receiver.  Keeping Carnell Tate wasn’t cheap either, I’m sure.

Texas is in a similar boat. Coming out of high school, Ryan Wingo was sought after nearly as much as Smith. While Smith is a current elite player, I’m convinced Wingo is a future elite player. Therein lies the rub. Texas did not get elite production out of Wingo in his first year, though there were numerous tantalizing glimpses and I’m certainly not blaming him. Good lord, just throw him five slants a game!

Elite receivers come with expensive carrying costs. The portal is great because you can get a difference-maker at a below-market rate. A difference-maker out of high school is expensive and comes equipped with those multi-year carrying costs. This is nothing against Wingo. Anyone who has read IT since well before he took the field knows I view him as a future first-rounder. It’s nothing against Kaliq Lockett or Jaime Ffrench—it’s simply about the economics of the position. 

Adonai Mitchell, Matthew Golden, and Spring Portal Man make my case as to the value of the portal. One hitter quitter. You can’t live by the portal, but you can find a number-one receiver in the portal, pay him a certain amount, and probably get more out of him in one year than you can in two years at a higher aggregate cost.

Offensive Line

As it relates to NIL, this position is the most interesting to me. Let’s say the goal is to keep 17 players in the room—that’s 68 years of eligibility, but an even higher number, or carrying cost (or opportunity cost if you really want to get in the weeds), when considering redshirts. Being offensive linemen, most only play extensively in how many years? We can probably halve 68, right? But a lot transfer before they ever play a down as well.

Kelvin Banks and Jake Majors aren’t the norm—best expressed by Banks starting day one at left tackle and Majors breaking UT’s all-time games started record. That’s a ton of bodies to have tied up when there is so much longterm developmental risk. The bright side is your 10th-17th offensive linemen typically come with much less investment—unless you made a very bad and expensive evaluation.

This all ties into what I wrote about during the Michael Fasusi recruitment. Theoretically, if the staff’s assumption in May 2024 was that the starting tackle duo in 2025 would be Trevor Goosby and Cameron Williams, with Brandon Baker as number three, how much financial sense would it make to push hard for five-star Fasusi? That would be a ton of money to have sitting on the bench. And not just Fasusi, but also Baker, who might play or might not in 2025.

Now we know Fasusi is at Oklahoma. Let me pause here… who let him sign there? That’s malfeasance. Oklahoma is teetering, and it’s visible to everyone. Nobody needs a 90-foot level to see the Tower of Pisa is leaning. Texas should mix in more portal recruiting at the position, especially for more full-grown interior players. This would allow them to carry less at the position.

Due to scarcity, you’ll have to overpay for a starting tackle in the portal, so that’s definitely not the play. The play is to cycle it correctly during high school recruiting, which is what we’re seeing now. Or, at least that’s the goal in the 2026 recruiting class. And that’s recruiting economics.

 

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Posted
16 minutes ago, Ignatius said:

Watch the KState game in 1998 and see how Ricky ran getting hit behind the LOS on every single fucking play…

Are we pretending Earl never had those types of games?

Posted
15 hours ago, Hank_Hill said:

But I was told Ewers should have

Arch would have.  If coach would have put him in in the 4th quarter we’d have been national champions, no doubt.  No doubt in my mind.  You better believe things would have been different.  He’d have gone pro in a heartbeat.  He’d be making millions of dollars and living in a big ol’ mansion somewhere, you know, soakin’ it up in a hot tub with his soulmate.  

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