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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
28 minutes ago, South Austin said:

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.

He should starts

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Posted

More recent:

Troy Omeire. Had such high hopes for him. There's an infinite loop that plays in my head each fall saying Troy's gonna have a breakout year, but injuries did him in. Glad he's having success at Arizona State. 

Even more recently, Isaiah Neyor. He played one game for at UT before transferring. Poor guy. 

 

Posted

From ai: The University of Texas has seen several highly touted football recruits who, for various reasons, did not meet the lofty expectations set during their recruitment. Here are some notable examples:

1. Derick Roberson (Class of 2014): A top-rated edge rusher from San Antonio, Roberson's tenure at Texas was marred by injuries and limited playing time. He eventually transferred to Sam Houston State, where he found more success.

2. Erick Fowler (Class of 2016): A four-star linebacker from Manor, Texas, Fowler was expected to bolster the Longhorns' defense. However, he struggled to find his footing and saw minimal action before transferring to another program.

3. Andrew Fitzgerald (Class of 2016): A promising defensive end from Flower Mound, Texas, Fitzgerald's career was unfortunately cut short due to injuries, leading him to retire from football in 2018 without significant on-field contributions.

4. Johntay Cook II (Class of 2023): A five-star wide receiver from DeSoto, Texas, Cook showed early promise but faced challenges off the field. After a modest freshman season, he left the program and faced legal issues in early 2025, hindering his football career. (LOL)

5. Garrett Gilbert (Class of 2009): A highly ranked quarterback from Austin, Texas, Gilbert was expected to continue Texas's legacy of strong quarterback play. Despite his high school success, he struggled during his tenure with the Longhorns, leading to a transfer to SMU, where he found more stability.

These cases highlight the unpredictable nature of college football, where even the most promising talents may face challenges that prevent them from reaching their full potential at a given program.

Posted
2 hours ago, AnotherLawyer said:

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.

The Malcolm Brown pick is a little unfair. He just played for shitty Texas offensive lines. He played six years in the nfl and had a few productive years. 

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Posted
12 minutes ago, irishtexan said:

I thought Robert Timmons was gonna be a stud. 

Same.  I recall he came from some pretty awful family circumstances, and didn't make it past his freshman year at Texas.  But I just Googled him, and am glad to see he's doing well running a sports apparel business.

Former Texas prep football star Robert Timmons defies toughest of odds, emerges as a flourishing entrepreneur

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Posted
27 minutes ago, Dbeasy said:

When you think about performance vs expectations, it really leans toward QB or RB. Given that, Simms and Gray are the two biggest disappointments. 

Fair assessment.  Take out his performances in Dallas (and for some of the OU games you can throw some blame on Mack/Greg), and he had a pretty damn good career as a Longhorn.  But he didn't live up to the "expectations" component of your analysis, and those expectations were just so damn high.  And it's not unlike what Arch Manning has ahead of him. 

Partly because of pedigree, but I think the expectations for Simms and Manning were far greater than those for Vince Young.

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Posted

Jason Burleson.

I was really excited to receive a subscription to Robert Heard's Inside Texas newsletter (an actual snail mail, paper newsletter about UT sports) for my birthday back in 1987 or 1988. Heard talked Burleson up something fierce. Listed him at 6'7", explained how that height was going to produce a QB the likes of which the world had never seen. Pretty sure he ended up at TE and never really did much.

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Posted
2 hours ago, Rimbo said:

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.

Lovell played in the league for a minute or at least got a summer call before his life choices led him into obscurity. I was friendly with Mike Adams during and for years after college and we didn't talk a lot about it but I know he and Lovell were roommates and tight during their Longhorn days. 

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Posted

This is a fascinating topic and I would love to wrack my brain trying to remember all the flameouts from a mostly trying period of Longhorn football. But I just got back from work -- a place where I have filed a whistleblower complaint -- and am in too good of a mood to to let schadenfreude drive my memory.

Instead, I'm going to go stand barefoot in the two-foot snow until tonight's low of -11 arrives, occupying my mind with thoughts of every bat-shit crazy date I ever had, which makes 25 years of marriage that much more tolerable. Then I'll come inside to drink warm castor oil and probably write @TreatyOak a thank-you note for coming up with what would otherwise have been an excellent distraction.

Oh, and thanks to the rest of y'all, too. I've got plenty of castor oil to go around if you want to join me in the yard.

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Posted (edited)

Also, Eric Hall from Clarksville, TN. Seems like he was supposed to be a great punter and tight end if I recall correctly. Think he was mostly a career backup at LB who had almost the same kind of expectations because of his athleticism as did Jason Burleson (hadn't thought of that guy in a long while).

Edited by Hayduke
nothin' better to do
Posted

@66BUFF on Houston, what the hell happened that the NCAA allowed him to waive the requirement to sit out a year before playing for CSU?  That was back when the NCAA actually enforced that rule and he just glided through with no problem.  I always figured Bienemy did something way worse than just call him Markesha but that's a total guess.

Posted
8 minutes ago, Not a cat said:

@66BUFF on Houston, what the hell happened that the NCAA allowed him to waive the requirement to sit out a year before playing for CSU?  That was back when the NCAA actually enforced that rule and he just glided through with no problem.  I always figured Bienemy did something way worse than just call him Markesha but that's a total guess.

I have never heard how he persuaded the NCAA to grant the waiver. Always heard that Houton was in the Bienemy doghouse due to Marcus being a Primadonna.  Makes sense when you had a stable of running backs with Brown, Purify, Johnson, Drumm and Calhoun.  He was never the same after his knee injury and I do think he did not run at 100% after all of his injuries.  I don't know if he had issues with other coaches as Bienemy took the UCLA job before he transferred to CSU so, Bienemy was not going to be his coach at CU in 2003

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Posted

Morenz was a good one.

 

David Aaron?

Victor Ike and Ivan Williams?

There was another receiver maybe late 90's/early 00's.  I think he was from Illinois?  maybe a car wreck or something?

Posted
4 hours ago, Caver60 said:

Jason Burleson.

I was really excited to receive a subscription to Robert Heard's Inside Texas newsletter (an actual snail mail, paper newsletter about UT sports) for my birthday back in 1987 or 1988. Heard talked Burleson up something fierce. Listed him at 6'7", explained how that height was going to produce a QB the likes of which the world had never seen. Pretty sure he ended up at TE and never really did much.

beat me to it, evidently he is one hell of a banjo player.

Posted
1 hour ago, Tylerocks said:

There was another receiver maybe late 90's/early 00's.  I think he was from Illinois?  maybe a car wreck or something?

I think that was Marquis Johnson. Part of the 2002 class. I recall the wreck was the summer after he graduated and he never made it to Austin, but someone might correct my memory.

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Posted
6 hours ago, Dbeasy said:

The Malcolm Brown pick is a little unfair. He just played for shitty Texas offensive lines. He played six years in the nfl and had a few productive years. 

He and Gray ran behind the same OL...and I literally said it's probably unfair. If you're calling out Gray, who had two exploded Achilleses, and which you do two posts later, and not Brown, who had zero exploded Achilleses, then Brown is actually the bigger disappointment. Having a mid career in the NFL punctuates that. Couldn't do it here, but could do it in in the NFL. Makes me think he was half-assing it here. It's not like, say, Priest Holmes who had some all-time games here and then consistently balled out in the NFL. Priest wasn't half-assing it here.

Posted
29 minutes ago, Lat22 said:

Lovell Pinkney

I get that we're not talking about busts but about guys who didn't live up to our expectations, but honestly what were you expecting out of him? The guy set the then-school record for career receiving TDs (still 10th or something last I saw). Also the receiving yards record with Mike Adams for freshmen. He was all-conference twice. The others, sure, but Lovell actually had a decent career with us for a TE playing WR his entire time here.

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Posted
2 hours ago, AnotherLawyer said:

I get that we're not talking about busts but about guys who didn't live up to our expectations, but honestly what were you expecting out of him? The guy set the then-school record for career receiving TDs (still 10th or something last I saw). Also the receiving yards record with Mike Adams for freshmen. He was all-conference twice. The others, sure, but Lovell actually had a decent career with us for a TE playing WR his entire time here.

Wanted to see him stay his senior year, and do a bit better in the NFL than he did.

Posted

I'll start with Larry Dibbles. Right after graduating from COLA, the only place that would hire my stupid, drugged out ass for any reason was a plaintiff's firm that desperately needed a legal assistant to abuse for a whopping $15.00 per hour (eat shit, engineering grads). We represented some kid who got his jaw broken by Larry Dibbles on 6th. I did some digging and found that Larry Dibbles was a five star (and he WAS a 5 star no matter what revisionist bullshit Rivals puts out there now). My boss and I were convinced that this was a potentially huge payday. It... was not. Anyway, Larry Dibbles, you still owe me a $250 bonus or whatever that scumbag lawyer was gonna give me if we settled the "lucrative" case against you. I promise to spend it on bad to mediocre cocaine in honor of my old boss.

Erick Fowler - wtf happened there? LSU fans threw HUGE temper tantrums about Charlie Strong orchestrating a master plan for fuck them over. Imagine getting fooled by Charlie Strong 4D chess and not being embarrassed as fuck about it. 

Reggie Wilson - I remember reading about his struggles and being left alone in Cote D'Ivoire and being convinced that he was a future all-timer. He... was not. 

Tyler Johnson - I'm not sure if we can chalk this one up to his love for music over football or the "development" players received from the staff at that time. But I saw how fluidly he moved in his HS highlights was sure he was going to be a good one. Alas, it was not to be. 

Sheroid Evans - I remember people being convinced that he was the second coming of Huff. Unfortunately, the poor kid's bones and ligaments just weren't compatible with those expectations.

Patrick Hudson and Mason Walters - These two kind of blend together for me for whatever reason. They may have not even played together. Idk, I've blocked a lot of that shit out. Anyway, I had visions of a power spread offense that just left defensive lineman broken and bleeding in its wake. Suffice to say, it did not work out that way. 

Edorian McCullough - I remember everyone penciling that guy in as a future Thorpe Award and/or Biletnikoff winner. Ouch.


Mal Williams - just imagine the player he would have been if his arms/hands weren't Tyrion Lannister sized and he could even sort of catch.

Jake Smith - basically EVERY PLAY of his high school HUDL was a 60+ yard touchdown. It's still one of the most insane HUDLs I have ever seen irrespective of how he turned out as a college player. Turns out, he was just playing against guys who are even slower than I am at almost 45. 

Jerrod Heard - at a time when we all convinced every QB who could run a 4.5 was the second coming of VY, Heard stood alone. And even sort of backed it up for exactly one game until his sub-Case McCoy arm was discovered by the diligent scouting of out enemies. I still can't believe Cal didn't just dare him to throw every down. Anyway... 

DID YOU EVEN SEE THAT SPIN MOVE FROM JOHN CHILES' HIGH SCHOOL HIGHLIGHTS??? MIKE VICK, 2.0 GUARANTEED. 

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Posted

Simms doesn't belong anywhere near this kind of list but 20 years later a certain segment of the fanbase still can't resist the urge to shit on him any chance thry get.

Screenshot_20250219_055329_Chrome.thumb.jpg.9a7950040697b2eccfa7f114cedce432.jpg

Screenshot_20250219_055246_Chrome.thumb.jpg.f51ecc61734b3687ea2ce36cc7a10b4b.jpg

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Posted
21 hours ago, TreatyOak said:

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. 

Has anyone said Quinn Ewers yet?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Ducks*

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Posted
5 hours ago, notre dame joe said:

Dayne Crist > Andrew Luck. 

Dayne Crist over Andrew Luck.png

I don't know who Star Jackson was, but his name sounds like what a lazy, LA-based writer who knows nothing about sports would name the QB for some terrible TV movie. 

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Posted
7 hours ago, campcrunk said:

I'll start with Larry Dibbles. Right after graduating from COLA, the only place that would hire my stupid, drugged out ass for any reason was a plaintiff's firm that desperately needed a legal assistant to abuse for a whopping $15.00 per hour (eat shit, engineering grads). We represented some kid who got his jaw broken by Larry Dibbles on 6th. I did some digging and found that Larry Dibbles was a five star (and he WAS a 5 star no matter what revisionist bullshit Rivals puts out there now). My boss and I were convinced that this was a potentially huge payday. It... was not. Anyway, Larry Dibbles, you still owe me a $250 bonus or whatever that scumbag lawyer was gonna give me if we settled the "lucrative" case against you. I promise to spend it on bad to mediocre cocaine in honor of my old boss.

I wouldn't put him on the list of "biggest" busts.  And I don't think he was the highest rated DL in his class -- that may have been Rodrique Wright.  But it definitely took Dibbles a while before he worked himself into the DL rotation, and I recall by his senior year on the championship team he was a solid contributor.  And he might have been in on the 4th down stop of Lendale White.

Googled Larry Dibbles and found this in a Tom Lemming recruiting write up:  "As a junior he recorded 142 tackles, 21 QB sacks, and 30 tackles for losses, and he caused eight fumbles, batted down eight passes and made one INT."  https://www.espn.com/recruiting/s/dibbles.html

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Posted
1 hour ago, South Austin said:

I wouldn't put him on the list of "biggest" busts.  And I don't think he was the highest rated DL in his class -- that may have been Rodrique Wright.  But it definitely took Dibbles a while before he worked himself into the DL rotation, and I recall by his senior year on the championship team he was a solid contributor.  And he might have been in on the 4th down stop of Lendale White.

Googled Larry Dibbles and found this in a Tom Lemming recruiting write up:  "As a junior he recorded 142 tackles, 21 QB sacks, and 30 tackles for losses, and he caused eight fumbles, batted down eight passes and made one INT."  https://www.espn.com/recruiting/s/dibbles.html

Marco Martin was more highly rated than Dibbles, if memory serves. He was a really big bust, given that he turned out to be a child molester (or alleged? don't know, didn't follow things after he left) and never played a snap at Texas.

Posted
1 minute ago, closetojumping said:

Marco Martin was more highly rated than Dibbles, if memory serves. He was a really big bust, given that he turned out to be a child molester (or alleged? don't know, didn't follow things after he left) and never played a snap at Texas.

That may be right.  I recall that Martin sustained a bad knee injury his senior year and never really recovered and/or never put in the effort.  He's listed on the 2005 roster, but I don't remember him hanging around that long.  https://texaslonghorns.com/sports/2013/6/28/FB_2005_Roster  

He reportedly played in six games at Texas, and in 2008 signed with the Odessa Roughnecks.

Quote

ODESSA - The Odessa Roughnecks announced on Friday the signing of 6-foot-3, 335-pound defensive tackle Marco Martin, who played six games at the University of Texas.

Martin graduated from Mesquite High School and was one of the top defensive tackle prospects in the nation in 2002. He suffered a knee injury late in his senior season and spent some of his time at UT rehabilitating.

Roughnecks coach Chris Williams said Martin has above average playing strength and has impressive speed burts for a player of his size.

Link

Posted
9 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

Marco Martin was more highly rated than Dibbles, if memory serves. He was a really big bust, given that he turned out to be a child molester (or alleged? don't know, didn't follow things after he left) and never played a snap at Texas.

He’s the one that got hurt in the high school playoffs his season year right?

Posted

Man, this topic just makes me sad. 

I have tons of empathy for both Gray and Brown. I think they played for 3 different OCs in three years? Brown got recruited over with Gray's signing, but then Mack/Davis absolutely refuse to establish a clear RB1. How was either one of them supposed to excel with all that turmoil? Then you throw in the achillieses, and it's just a sad outcome all the way around. And the inexplicable number of carries for Joe Bergeron during the same timeframe?!?!?

Add me to the list for Fowler and McCullough and Eagles and Neyor and JakeSmith. 

Simms doesn't belong anywhere on this list, FOH with that noise.

 

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Posted
7 minutes ago, Butch Had Not said:

He's a douche but I fell for the Chance Mock hype. I was hand wringing over who would be playing after VY showed up. 

He had a moment but that was a bust.

What a weird time, to be that highly touted (top10 in Fab55, right?), and to have fuckin VY behind you. 

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Posted
20 minutes ago, capnamerca said:

What a weird time, to be that highly touted (top10 in Fab55, right?), and to have fuckin VY behind you. 

If my memory is correct, Chance Mock was a Parade All-American QB (back when that publication and it's AA list was a thing), and it was a huge deal for Texas to have signed back-to-back Parade AA QB's (Simms the year before).

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Posted (edited)

Rufus Harris. "Destructive Back." I remember a bunch of us mouth-breathers being SO hyped after he called himself that.

Boring: https://stats.texassports.com/custompages/sports/m-footbl/archive/stats/02/plyr0020.htm

Instead he was passed over by a bunch of complete scrubs like Cedric Griffin, Michael Huff, etc. Too bad our secondary in that era was so meh, we could've used a guy like that. With any decent kind of DBs we might've won a national title!

Edited by Rimbo
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Posted (edited)

One great non-Texas edition: 

Tate Martell:

From commitments to University of Washington, Texas A&M, then playing at Ohio State, Miami, and finally UNLV, Martell never reached his expectations and never made much of an impact, and really didn't even play that much. He was definitely a "peaked in HS" type. He also famously switched to WR at Miami, and was also suspended at the beginning of the 2020 season. He appeared in only two games at UNLV with one pass attempt during the 2021 season due to injury. 

Could playing at Bishop Gorman with all the talent around him have covered up his deficiencies, or was he just unable to grasp the faster college game? 

Edited by TreatyOak
Posted

The thing that exacerbated the disappointment in Brown/Gray was that Texas had been unable to land a 5-star in-state RB in what seemed like forever. Since landing Cedric Benson in 2001, we missed out on in-state 5-star RBs Lache Seastrunk (bust), Christine Michael (bust-ish), Jermie Calhoun (bust), Michael Goodson (regressed every year in school), and Adrian Peterson (stud). I thought we were setup to have a devastating run game for the next 4-5 years. And it just never happened. 

 

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Posted

Malcolm Williams - This guy slowed down for a catch against Tech and then took off with breakaway speed leaving the DB in his wake.  I thought this dude was going to be better than Roy Williams.

Brandon Collins - I thought this guy really hurt Colt's 2009 season as he seemed to be a really good college player.

Erik Hardeman - Never was.

Mike Williams - Looked like a stud and flunked out.

Brian Pickryl - Injuries made sure he went pro in something other than sports.  Looked like a stud.

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