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Off-Season Thread of Sadness: College Football’s Biggest Busts. Who Let You Down the Most?


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Posted

Tracking the spectacular, Dateline-worthy self-immolation currently being orchestrated by Johntay Cook got me thinking: Every college football fan, Longhorn or otherwise, has that one recruit they were sure would become a legend — only to watch them flame out in spectacular fashion. I’m talking about the ones who dominated in high school, put up record-breaking numbers, and were hailed as the “next big thing”… only to disappear into obscurity due to injuries, a bad fit, off-field issues, bad luck or otherwise. 

Who’s the biggest bust you’ve ever hyped up? You know — the one you told all your friends who are fans of other programs to ‘watch out’ for. 

Drop your most disappointing high school-to-college disasters in the comments.

I’ll start with two Longhorns I mentioned in the Johntay thread from 2007-2008: 

  • Buck Burnette was an offensive lineman recruit from Wimberley. Buck may have been good at hunting deer, but unfortunately for Buck, he needed a trigger lock on his fingers, as he invited hunters on Facebook to bag Barack Obama after he won his first term. Using the N-word was also a nice touch. (No alcohol was involved in this incident at all.) Never played a down for the Horns.
     
  • Andre Jones was a heartbreaker for me. Andre was a five-star defensive lineman from El Paso who also never played a down, as he got implicated in a strange robbery case w/ model citizen Robert Joseph. (remember him?) Andre Jones always claimed he wasn't even at the scene of the apartment robbery and it was a case of mistaken identify, but he was unable to clear his name, as the video evidence his lawyer produced was inconclusive. We will never know the truth, but poor Andre was cooked. That sucks if that poor guy got shafted, but pretty much anyone who hung out w Robert Joseph was compromising their career, reputation, safety, citizenship, life, etc.

Love to hear yours. It can be from any college. 

Posted

Buck Burnette was a middling 3 star Mac McWhorter Special and you're still hung up about his flameout? That's Theatre of the Absurd level shit.

The big one for me is Shea Morenz. I was ecstatic that Texas signed one of the best players in the country and told anyone who would listen about it. Whoops. That predates my time on the Internet by a few years, but it's easily the biggest one I can think of for this exercise. 

I wonder if any of the Garrett Gilbert apologists/Lake Travis honks will add him to the list. He doesn't make mine because I was calling him a likely bust from the time he committed forward, much to the dismay of the $9.95 boards Chorus of Fates back on Shaggy. 

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Posted

Derick Roberson- Top rated recruit in the 2014 class and contributed pretty much nothing. I think he ended up at SHSU

Erick Fowler- Always kind of a weird size/positional fit but I don’t know if he ever even played a game

Patrick Hudson- I never figured out what this guys deal was but he was the highest rated o line commit we had in the whole Strong era. 

BJ Foster- played a decent amount but sucked. Coming out of HS he was a sure fire NFL guy.

Brennan Eagles- I thought this guy was going to be awesome but he never really amounted to anything 

 

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Posted

Buck who? I mean, I know our OL was mostly hammered dog shit for the better part of a decade, but what the hell was BB gonna do to improve the situation?


And I wouldn't call him a flame out & don't mean to derail the intent of the thread, but fuck the off-season so I feel for guys like OJ McClintock. Classic "athlete" take that kept out growing his natural position but was never strong or capable enough to make a difference where he ended up.

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Posted
20 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

Buck Burnette was a middling 3 star Mac McWhorter Special and you're still hung up about his flameout? That's Theatre of the Absurd level shit.

For me, Burnette is less about being a great player (though I thought he would be at least good) and more just for the extremely stunning and ridiculous way he sabotaged his own career. To ruin your career in one Facebook post is truly legendary. I actually felt sorry for him being so stupid.   

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Posted (edited)
2 minutes ago, TreatyOak said:

For me, Burnette is less about being a great player (though I thought he would be at least good) and more just for the extremely stunning and ridiculous way he sabotaged his own career. To ruin your career in one Facebook post is truly legendary. I actually felt sorry for him being so stupid.   

It was quite a harbinger of how much blatant racism still exists and how Obama broke people's brains.

At the time I was, like you, shocked.  Now I'm like "figures."

Edited by TwiceHorn
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Posted
9 minutes ago, C'Mon Man said:

Brennan Eagles- I thought this guy was going to be awesome but he never really amounted to anything 

Brennan Eagles is a good one. I had such high expectations for him. 

How about D'Onta Foreman's brother, Armante? If I recall, D'Onta was only brought to make Armante happy and was an unknown afterthought.  

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Posted

Off the top of my head

 

Lynn Katoa

Katoa was a five-star football recruit out of Cottonwood but never saw the field at Colorado because of numerous off-field legal problems. Two months after arriving on campus he was arrested for breaking and entering an apartment where he slammed one man’s head through a wall and assaulted another with a rock before throwing him out a window.

Darrell Scott (born April 16, 1989) is an American former professional football running back. He attended the University of South Florida, where he redshirted the 2010 college football season after having transferred from the University of Colorado.[1] Scott attended St. Bonaventure High School in Ventura, California. Scott was considered the #1 running back of the 2008 high school class by Rivals.com[2] and has drawn comparisons to LaDainian Tomlinson.[3]

 

 

Marcus Houston (born May 27, 1981) is a former American football player.

Houston grew up in Denver, Colorado and attended Thomas Jefferson High School. As a senior, he rushed for 1723 yards and 28 touchdowns.[1] Houston was one of the most sought after recruits in the nation and committed to play at the University of Colorado over offers from Texas, Florida State, Southern California, UCLA, Ohio State and Miami.[2] He was widely considered to be the most highly-touted prospect in Colorado Buffaloes history at the time.[3][4] He was also a USA Today High School All-American in 1999.

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Posted
3 minutes ago, 66BUFF said:

Off the top of my head

 

Lynn Katoa

Katoa was a five-star football recruit out of Cottonwood but never saw the field at Colorado because of numerous off-field legal problems. Two months after arriving on campus he was arrested for breaking and entering an apartment where he slammed one man’s head through a wall and assaulted another with a rock before throwing him out a window.

Darrell Scott (born April 16, 1989) is an American former professional football running back. He attended the University of South Florida, where he redshirted the 2010 college football season after having transferred from the University of Colorado.[1] Scott attended St. Bonaventure High School in Ventura, California. Scott was considered the #1 running back of the 2008 high school class by Rivals.com[2] and has drawn comparisons to LaDainian Tomlinson.[3]

 

 

Marcus Houston (born May 27, 1981) is a former American football player.

Houston grew up in Denver, Colorado and attended Thomas Jefferson High School. As a senior, he rushed for 1723 yards and 28 touchdowns.[1] Houston was one of the most sought after recruits in the nation and committed to play at the University of Colorado over offers from Texas, Florida State, Southern California, UCLA, Ohio State and Miami.[2] He was widely considered to be the most highly-touted prospect in Colorado Buffaloes history at the time.[3][4] He was also a USA Today High School All-American in 1999.

Darrell Scott is one of the most famous busts of his era, for sure. He was a Texas commit for some time. After a semi-promising freshman season at CU, he demanded more playing time, transferred to UCLA, then South Florida, where he ended up having a marginally-successful career. He never played a down in the NFL.

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Posted (edited)

Gotta mention Johnathan Gray for sure. 
Maybe Mason Walters to some extent. 
Sheroid Evans maybe. 
Patrick Hudson of course

That Cali Lb that had spine issues too

Just off the top of my head. 
 

Edited by Atticus
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Posted
2 minutes ago, Atticus said:

Gotta mention Johnathan Gray for sure. 
Maybe Mason Walters to some extent. 
Sheroid Brown maybe. 
Patrick Hudson of course

That Cali Lb that had spine issues too

Just off the top of my head. 
 

What are you talking about? I've never heard of any of those players. There was no Longhorn football played between 2010-2022. They didn't even have a team, games or anything.   

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Posted

It's probably not fair, but it's a tie between Malcolm Brown and Johnathan Gray. Before that it was Tray Allen and Marquis Johnson. With all the hype each RB got, and Gray's pedigree, anything less than Heismans was going to be a let-down. Not only did that not happen, but neither of them even rushed for a thousand yards in a single season. I get that Gray had Achilles tendons made of glass, but even when he was healthy he was a plodding tweener, same with Malcolm Brown. And, for a 5-star Army AA, Allen was just underwhelming and mostly below average. Johnson didn't even make it here, I think? And wherever he went, he did nothing there either.

Posted
1 hour ago, 66BUFF said:

Off the top of my head

 

Lynn Katoa

Katoa was a five-star football recruit out of Cottonwood but never saw the field at Colorado because of numerous off-field legal problems. Two months after arriving on campus he was arrested for breaking and entering an apartment where he slammed one man’s head through a wall and assaulted another with a rock before throwing him out a window.

Darrell Scott (born April 16, 1989) is an American former professional football running back. He attended the University of South Florida, where he redshirted the 2010 college football season after having transferred from the University of Colorado.[1] Scott attended St. Bonaventure High School in Ventura, California. Scott was considered the #1 running back of the 2008 high school class by Rivals.com[2] and has drawn comparisons to LaDainian Tomlinson.[3]

 

 

Marcus Houston (born May 27, 1981) is a former American football player.

Houston grew up in Denver, Colorado and attended Thomas Jefferson High School. As a senior, he rushed for 1723 yards and 28 touchdowns.[1] Houston was one of the most sought after recruits in the nation and committed to play at the University of Colorado over offers from Texas, Florida State, Southern California, UCLA, Ohio State and Miami.[2] He was widely considered to be the most highly-touted prospect in Colorado Buffaloes history at the time.[3][4] He was also a USA Today High School All-American in 1999.

Or Markesha Houston, as fat fuck Eric Bienemy was fond of calling him.

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Posted

I agree with Gray, Simms and even Marcus Houston. I think we Longhorns sometimes forget that Simms was nearly as talked about as Arch, just a long time ago without the social media hype cycle. All names I can easily recall even though one went to CU. 

Lulz, I actually can't recall his name right this second, but the Louisanna QB who came here, committed, then upon Decommitting was shown to he back door trying to pull existing Texas recruits. Ended up at LSU.. Ryan fucking Perilous (however the fuck you spell it)

Moritz is a good one. His hype kept JB on the bench a lot longer than he should have been. 

 

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Posted

Will Goodloe, still my no. 1 bust

Taylor Bible, a close second to Goodloe

Bryan Johnson, flashed in a big way as a freshman then flunked out

Brian Linder, was from Bridge City and was called the next Shane Dronett which he never embraced, for good reason.  At least he's probably still alive.

 

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Posted
2 hours ago, C'Mon Man said:

 

Patrick Hudson- I never figured out what this guys deal was but he was the highest rated o line commit we had in the whole Strong era. 

 

 

Early Herman era hardass-ness

got this guy wiped out with heat stroke. May have been a little organ damage. 

Posted
9 minutes ago, Horndog said:

Edwin Simmons anyone? 

Did you ever see him play? I did. He was fantastic, and if not for his knee blowout, would have been the offensive spark the 1983 team needed to approach the defense’s greatness. 
 
He came back (as a fullback?) and played as well as he could after major surgery on each knee. His speed was gone. The guy played as well as he was able. 

Posted

there was some guy in the hornfans era, I think he was from louisiana or se texas. didnt make it on grades, went to juco got his grades up and was coming back to Texas but got murdered. anyone recall ?

 

Posted
21 minutes ago, statsman said:

Did you ever see him play? I did. He was fantastic, and if not for his knee blowout, would have been the offensive spark the 1983 team needed to approach the defense’s greatness. 
 
He came back (as a fullback?) and played as well as he could after major surgery on each knee. His speed was gone. The guy played as well as he was able. 

Well and that whole nude backyard invasion thing.

Posted
1 hour ago, AnotherLawyer said:

It's probably not fair, but it's a tie between Malcolm Brown and Johnathan Gray. 

Entirely fair.  It was a back-to-back punch in nuts of landing the No. 1 running back in the state in consecutive years followed by such underwhelming production as Longhorns.  Yeah, Gray had an awful Achilles injury, but looking back he didn't have a whole lot of mileage after his high school program ran him into the ground.  

To ctj's point, I remember hearing all about Shea Morenz when I came to Texas in 1994.  He had a pretty good game against Colorado early in the season, almost single-handedly keeping us in the game after Gary _arnell's defense practically gave Rashaan Salaam the Heisman.  But I don't think he did shit after that.

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Posted
4 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Well and that whole nude backyard invasion thing.

Back in those days, that cougar should have hit up the Super 8 north of campus or whatever it is. She threw that poor kid under the bus.

Posted
4 minutes ago, South Austin said:

Entirely fair.  It was a back-to-back punch in nuts of landing the No. 1 running back in the state in consecutive years followed by such underwhelming production as Longhorns.  Yeah, Gray had an awful Achilles injury, but looking back he didn't have a whole lot of mileage after his high school program ran him into the ground.  

To ctj's point, I remember hearing all about Shea Morenz when I came to Texas in 1994.  He had a pretty good game against Colorado early in the season, almost single-handedly keeping us in the game after Gary _arnell's defense practically gave Rashaan Salaam the Heisman.  But I don't think he did shit after that.

Morenz kept getting hurt, was fighting off James Brown, and was doing much better in baseball that football, so he made the switch and played for a number of years in the Yankee farm system.  Finance Bro now and seems to be crushing it.  

Posted
10 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Well and that whole nude backyard invasion thing.

Let me tell you something about UT in the ‘80s. We weren’t a bunch of grade and resume building nerds. Cavorting naked in the middle of the night was neither uncommon nor frowned upon in my day. 

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Posted
2 minutes ago, statsman said:

Seems to be, according to Twicehorn…

He's just an IP lawyer.  He knows nothing about the field of Cavorting Naked in the Middle of the Night Law.

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Posted
7 minutes ago, statsman said:

Let me tell you something about UT in the ‘80s. We weren’t a bunch of grade and resume building nerds. Cavorting naked in the middle of the night was neither uncommon nor frowned upon in my day. 

Obligatory

giphy.gif?cid=6c09b9529sik5jelrosgjniwfl

Posted
1 hour ago, BurntEyes said:

Lulz, I actually can't recall his name right this second, but the Louisanna QB who came here, committed, then upon Decommitting was shown to he back door trying to pull existing Texas recruits. Ended up at LSU.. Ryan fucking Perilous (however the fuck you spell it)

I guess it is fair to name Perrilloux as a bust, as he has lots of off-field incidents and was eventually kicked off the LSU team, ended up underachieving at Jacksonville State, and never played in the NFL. However, unlike most of the other players in this thread, he did have one amazing game and was named the MVP of the SEC championship game, so that is redeeming, to some degree. 

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Posted
2 minutes ago, TreatyOak said:

I guess it is fair to name Perrilloux as a bust, as he has lots of off-field incidents and was eventually kicked off the LSU team, ended up underachieving at Jacksonville State, and never played in the NFL. However, unlike most of the other players in this thread, he did have one amazing game and was named the MVP of the SEC championship game, so that is redeeming, to some degree. 

Other than ditching us at the last minute, the only other thing I remember about Ryan Perrilloux is that he looked like Shirley from What's Happening in his recruiting profile pic.

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Posted (edited)
3 hours ago, closetojumping said:

Buck Burnette was a middling 3 star Mac McWhorter Special and you're still hung up about his flameout? That's Theatre of the Absurd level shit.

The big one for me is Shea Morenz. I was ecstatic that Texas signed one of the best players in the country and told anyone who would listen about it. Whoops. That predates my time on the Internet by a few years, but it's easily the biggest one I can think of for this exercise. 

I wonder if any of the Garrett Gilbert apologists/Lake Travis honks will add him to the list. He doesn't make mine because I was calling him a likely bust from the time he committed forward, much to the dismay of the $9.95 boards Chorus of Fates back on Shaggy. 

Despite my infamous post-2009 love letter to Squints (cringe), that's one guy whose high school tape I saw and thought, "Well, I guess those brilliant recruiting guys are seeing something I'm not." Turns out my initial reaction was the right one.

How about everyone's favorite "whatever happened to that guy" stud Butch Hadnot, who vanished after his amazing freshman year. I'd like to add Ramonce Taylor and Lovell Pinkney as runners up, but they were at least contributors in college for more than one season.

Edited by Rimbo
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Posted
20 minutes ago, South Austin said:

It's frowned upon today?

No - in fact the legacy remains intact. Why it's a colorful pastime of Texas' Minister of Culture.

Posted

Lol, Ryan Perrilloux's glorious NFL career: 

"On January 13, 2011, Perrilloux was signed to a reserve/future contract with the New York Giants.[33] On September 3, 2011, he was cut from the Giants' roster.[34] He was re-signed the same day to the practice squad, released from the practice squad on September 17 and was once more re-signed on September 23.[34] Perrilloux was waived again on September 28.[34] He was re-signed to the practice squad on October 8, but released again on October 12, only to be re-signed once more on October 17.[34] He was released from the practice squad again on November 2, 2011[35] and then signed to the practice squad again on November 11, 2011, before being released once again on November 26, 2011.[36] He was re-signed during the 2012 offseason and was released for the final time by the Giants during the final cut of the 2012 preseason.[3"

Posted

Not necessarily a bust, but didn't live up to near the hype I recall as a recruit:  John Childs

We got some teasers his first couple of years as a potential dual-threat QB successor to Colt when he would come in for the "Wild Horn" formation, and everyone in the fucking stadium knew he was just going to run it up the middle.  He finally moved to receiver in 2009 and showed some flashes.  And according to some he should still starts.

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