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Texas recruiting notes 2019


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Lunchtime nuggets: Intel on elite DB Jalen Catalon

— Texas is working hard to get elite defensive back Jalen Catalon on campus early next week. Nothing is set in stone, but don’t be surprised if he does indeed make his way to Austin. Catalon’s mother has not been to Texas yet, and the Longhorns really want her to join him for the trip. Obviously, she’s a big factor in his recruitment and winning her over is imperative. 

— Four-star Gilbert (Ariz.) Williams Field safety Noa Pola-Gates will not be able to make it to Texas for an unofficial visit as originally scheduled. Pola-Gates had some things pop up with family. Texas is continuing to push hard for Pola-Gates, and we still expect him to make his way to Austin for an official visit in the fall/winter.

— There is a report out that four-star St. Louis (Mo.) Trinity Catholic linebacker Shammond Cooper is coming in for the event on Friday. However, that is not the case. I briefly exchanged messages with Cooper, who told me that he would be at Oklahoma this weekend. However, Cooper is still looking to make an OV to UT in the fall/winter.

— We have a couple more additions for the event on Friday. Rising 2020 Carthage athlete Kelvontay Dixon, who is the younger brother of Texas freshman Keaontay Ingram, will be in Austin. He holds a handful of offers. Fellow 2020 athlete Ty Jordan will also camp with Texas. He is approaching double-digit offers and is one to watch.

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So what do y'all think is going on with the Gbenda recruitment? Aggies claim they don't want him, 995 thinks the roaches are doing very well in this recruitment and we seem to want him or are waiting to see him this season? He looks like a perfect LB for this conference.

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2 minutes ago, Goodman said:

So what do y'all think is going on with the Gbenda recruitment? Aggies claim they don't want him, 995 thinks the roaches are doing very well in this recruitment and we seem to want him or are waiting to see him this season? He looks like a perfect LB for this conference.

A&M and Texas seem to like him as a backup option and are treating him as such while they look nationally for better prospects, while TCU is recruiting him harder 

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10 hours ago, closetojumping said:

This has always been his MO. He's getting everybody, his competitors are a bunch of fucking clowns who don't know what they're doing, and then anyone he doesn't get - he didn't want and they'll bust elsewhere. There are shades of this with Carrington at Texas, btw.  

Huh?

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11 hours ago, closetojumping said:

This has always been his MO. He's getting everybody, his competitors are a bunch of fucking clowns who don't know what they're doing, and then anyone he doesn't get - he didn't want and they'll bust elsewhere. There are shades of this with Carrington at Texas, btw. 

If it leads to Carrington recruiting the next VY I'll take it 

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7 hours ago, Goodman said:

So what do y'all think is going on with the Gbenda recruitment? Aggies claim they don't want him, 995 thinks the roaches are doing very well in this recruitment and we seem to want him or are waiting to see him this season? He looks like a perfect LB for this conference.

We're slow playing him but trying to keep him engaged so he doesn't commit to the Frogs before we can see senior tape.

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EJ after dark: Latest on visit plans for Gbenda, Shepherd

— As I reported earlier today, four-star Katy Cinco Ranch inside linebacker David Gbenda is visiting TCU tomorrow. Texas did talk to him about coming to Austin after spending some time in the morning in Fort Worth, but he's not going to make the extra drive. Texas is still working hard on Gbenda, who is maintaining his December timeline. Gbenda told me he wants to reschedule his visit, so I would expect him to catch a practice.

— I checked in with Rischad Whitfield aka Footwork King, and he confirmed that he is in fact bringing in four-star offensive lineman Javonne Shepherd for his visit to Texas. We still feel like the Longhorns have the edge over Texas A&M and feel confident about our Crystal Ball picks. Whitfield, however, told me that Demond Demas will not make the trip. The five-star receiver is making a visit to Georgia.

— I checked in with four-star Williams Field (AZ) safety Noa Pola-Gates, who told me that it’s ‘killing’ him that he won’t be able to make it to Austin this weekend. Pola-Gates has a sick family member and has to stay in town, so no, this has nothing to do with him losing interest. Texas is still doing a great job in this recruitment and will get him on campus for an official visit in the fall/winter.

— There are a few more additions to the Stars at Night list. Elite 2021 offensive lineman Hayden Conner will be in attendance as will rising 2021 cornerback Latrell McCutchin, who holds a pair of early offers. Big-time 2021 wide receiver Deamikkio Nathanwill also be at the camp. In the 2020 class, rising defensive linemen Braedon Nutter and Jessie Evans will both be at Texas as will linebacker Josh White, who holds several P5 offers.

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Eric Nahlin: Factors and Scenarios that Will Have a Major Impact on the Class Finish

At this same point in the 2018 recruiting cycle nobody -- coaches included -- foresaw the following players signing with Texas: wide receiver Josh Moore, defensive lineman Moro Ojomo, defensive lineman Daniel Carson, defensive lineman Michael Williams, offensive lineman Christian Jones, and offensive lineman Mikey Grandy. Even with Grandy giving up football this grouping increased the ceiling of the class immensely. Also at the time, the staff was engaged in long-play recruitments with cornerback Anthony Cook, linebacker Joseph Ossai, and offensive lineman Junior Angilau. Though Texas had much of its class written in pencil by the end of the summer, there were still quite a few unknowns heading into the season and then especially between the two signing days.

In 2019, for reasons we've covered, there is even more uncertainty in how the class will play out. No worries, there are numerous scenarios, that if leveraged correctly, will help maximize the class by the time we focus on 2020. Below are the scenarios with examples provided. Some recruitments will have overlapping scenarios. The more scenarios below that apply to a prospect, the better the chances for an enterprising staff of recruiters to land said player.

1. Coaching changes, uncertainty surrounding under-performing recruiting powers:

Clearly this is aimed at two schools. I'll take, who are Ed Orgeron's two most recent employers for $200, Alex? USC and LSU are down in perception among fans and boosters alike. Though LSU's class is better than last year, and USC is only surpassed by LSU as schools with the easiest path to great classes, Clay Helton and Ed Orgeron may just be stacking the deck for the next coach. After being saved by Sam Darnold, Helton is already on his second lease on life and another disappointing season could see him Peter Principled. Speaking of St. Peter, Orgeron's prospects this season may be even worse than Helton's.

As fortune would have it, the staff already recruits these two areas as secondary territories so they should be familiar with which threads to pull on should those staffs be turned over or under-perform while being retained.

2. Instate late-bloomers:

We see this every single cycle without fail. Not only do players emerge, some become elite must-haves. Find them early and pursue accordingly. If the kid is good enough to be in the class, like Craig Williams, don't overthink it. Of course, Moro Ojomo and his unique circumstances are a more pleasing example. Pour over September film, re-rank your board, and go from there.

3. Out-of-state prospects squeezed out by instate schools filling up:

This sort of plays into the market inefficiencies @Scipio Tex is discussing when imploring Texas to recruit Baja California or whatever the hell he's on about. In some places, notably Upper California, there is more talent than allocated spots for players who can play at an elite program. Not good enough to be on USC's short list? You can't dork your way into Stanford? Cal might abolish football and force you to play the much more troglodytic rugby? Chip Kelly keeps referring to you as 'hey f*****'? Then maybe it's time to look out of state. This worked with safety Chris Adimora and it's the same template with linebacker Daniel Heimuli. We've seen also seen this play into UT's favor in Louisiana with Malcolm Roach, Mike Williams, and perhaps soon, with Makiya Tongue. Last year out West it worked with Cameron Rising. It's sure to work again.

4. Prospects without a Texas offer but still being recruited quietly:

Last cycle Texas recruited Christian Jones harder than most knew. He was at a September game where one high school coach raved about the giant kid whose name he didn't know. I tracked it down as Jones. This was well in advance of his late offer. Still with no offer, Jones also attended a bowl practice. The staff played the long game on what looked like a short recruitment and closed. Southern California offensive lineman Dohnovan West is being recruited like he has an offer. Ditto Tennessee offensive lieman Melvin McBride. Both will visit and who knows where it will go from there. While those names have recently come to light, there are more that are unknown at this time but are sure to surface. To underscore this, the staff has already established a strong relationship with some players it has yet to offer.

5. Circle-backs:

Some kids are not worth the headache of recruiting constantly for over a year. Their recruitment is a roller coaster the staff doesn't have the stomach for. Some may have character issues that have been ironed out over time. Others are just in the right place at the right time and the staff sees nothing but upside given how little time it spent recruiting them. You should be thinking of Josh Moore right now. The staff played that recruitment expertly. Early in the cycle I said this class had its share of character risks. No need to attach names to that, but we could see the staff make a credible late run at a high profile recruit or two provided character or program fit checks out.

Also, as a player gets closer to actually signing, some hesitate to uproot far from home. Texas should circle back on the targets that are poised to switch time zones, including NaNa Osafo-Mensah. If the season is a success, the staff will circle back to any and all recruits it wants who are committed elsewhere and give it another go.

6. Leveraging volatility between the signing days: 

Josh Moore applies here as does Vernon Jackson who the staff just missed out on by the thinnest of margins. Shooters shoot!  Between the signing days you may find some mercenaries, particularly among the Juco ranks. These are often the players who consider football and path to the field the primary, secondary, and tertiary considerations in their decision making process. Weird s*** happens down the stretch and with so many players already inking during the first signing period, the focus on already heavily recruited players intensifies. It's true this drives up the theoretical value of a player when their actual value has stayed the same -- and in turn that makes for some hilarious internet -- but it's useful to know which players are still open. Not signing during the first signing period is often, but not always, a tell. There's also the type of weirdness that is best discussed off the internet, which makes for some recruitments being impossible to read. The fact patters surrounding these are often pretty blatant but there's not much you can do about them. If a commitment like this comes as a surprise to a staff it wasn't doing it's job, otherwise you just throw up your hands.

As of now fans should be excited with where the class sits, though a little nervousness is probably fair too. If you go by the state's Top 25, which I believe is poorly assembled, you'd definitely be concerned. However, when you account for the six out-of-state commits, Texas has nine commits who would be under Top 25 consideration if not outright locks to make it. When you factor for all these scenarios and then account for long-plays like safety Jalen Catalon, wide receiver Dylan Wright, linebacker Maninoa Tufono, running backs Noah Cain and Trey Sanders, etc., it's not hard to see how the class will fill up. However, it is hard to know how the class will be comprised and therein lies the excitement.

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— I checked in with Rischad Whitfield aka Footwork King, and he confirmed that he is in fact bringing in four-star offensive lineman Javonne Shepherd for his visit to Texas. We still feel like the Longhorns have the edge over Texas A&M and feel confident about our Crystal Ball picks. Whitfield, however, told me that Demond Demas will not make the trip. The five-star receiver is making a visit to Georgia.

Whitfield visits Aggy this week. Demond Demas is discussed. Now, he’s not visiting this weekend. Plot thickens 

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18 minutes ago, Katfid54 said:

You've got me so grammar triggered right now.  You don't even know.

His interest was at it's pique and he pored his beer all over the film by accident. They'res no problem.

Edited by Bevo14
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2 hours ago, RollingPresidential said:

Imagine if someone wrote "Carrington has strong African-American ties" as much as the Langi thing for every black kid that came in. It's stupid and bordering on something else. 247 has its shitty style guide that churns every post out like it's a Clarence Thomas concurrence, but that one needs to end.

I've always figured that EJ has a template that he uses for each of his cookie cutter recruiting posts. I imagine it being something like,

"As I have reported earlier, (recruit's name here) will in fact be in Austin this weekend for the annual UTL camp. (position coach/lead recruiter name here) has been working around the clock on this recruitment, and we currently feel confident in our crystal ball picks. **Insert the following sentence if Texas is not in the lead** I am confident that Texas can take the lead this weekend if they hit it out of the park. Bryan Carrington (Jake Langi if recruit is from Hawaii/has Polynesian decent) has been the secret weapon in this recruitment, and it looks like his efforts will play a key role in (recruit's name)'s decision. **Insert sentence about two other schools the recruit is considering and how hard they are pushing**"

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TFB Open Post: https://texas.thefootballbrainiacs.com/2018/07/open-post-weekend-july-27th-29th/

 

So What Happens if Texas Doesn’t Win? | Sourced Note
– Super K

I recently spoke to someone with knowledge of how Texas athletic director, Chris Del Conte operates. As you all know, Del Conte was previously the athletic director at TCU. He oversaw a lot of football success there with coach Gary Patterson steering the ship.

You will recall, though, that Patterson’s transition into the Big 12 wasn’t easy. And apparently, even with a coach with Gary Patterson’s record leading the team, Del Conte wasn’t going to sit by and see how things played out.

The three seasons prior to entering the Big 12 Patterson went 12-1, 13-0 (BCS Rose Bowl winners) and 11-2.

They went a decent 7-6 their first season in the Big 12. Herman just did the same in his first year in the Big 12.

But the next year they went 4-8 and Del Conte wasted no time in ensuring changes were made. TCU’s OC was let go and Sonny Cumbie & Dough Meacham were brought in to fix the TCU offense. And, they fixed it…fast.

TCU went 12-1 the next year with a dominating win in the Peach Bowl.

My source didn’t comment on what degree Del Conte had to push coach Patterson to make those changes but I certainly got the impression that no amount of reluctance was going to matter. Del Conte was going to insist upon those changes.

He also said in no uncertain terms that based on his knowledge of how Del Conte operates, if Texas doesn’t win this year, there will absolutely be changes made…willingly or otherwise.

Two Schools Pushing Hard for 4-Star Makiya Tongue
– Super K

Earlier this summers 2019 4-star ATH (WR/LB) dropped a top three of Texas, UGA and Arizona State…

I recently caught up with Makiya and he let me know that he will be at Georgia’s “G-day” this weekend. That obviously means he won’t be able to make it to Texas for this weekend’s recruiting event.

But, he said, “I am going up Monday though”. So, Makiya will visit two of his top three schools in the next few days.

With Makiya nearing a decision I asked him if it’s safe to say that it’s now a UGA vs. Texas battle to which he replied, “I wouldn’t say that but they have been in most contact”.

***In other words, it’s a UGA vs. Texas battle.

In terms of a decision, Makiya says he’d like to announce, “hopefully before the season starts”.

I surmise these two upcoming visits to Texas and to UGA or meant to help clarify a final decision.

2019 4-Star DT Rodas Johnson Goes from Possibly to Definitely
– Super K
As we mentioned earlier this week, 2019 DT Rodas Johnson (Columbus, OH) is currently in Texas visiting family and was considering a possible visit to Austin for Friday night’s recruiting event.
I spoke with Rodas earlier today and he confirmed that the visit is now set up and he will be at Texas Friday night. He also said he will be competing in the camp activities.

Rodas is a 4-star defensive lineman who lives in Columbus but is originally from Texas. He moved to Ohio in elementary school but has stayed connected to the state with visits down here every summer. Texas is still in his blood…

“This is my home. Ohio is just where I live”.

Johnson says he spoke with coach Giles yesterday, “Coach Giles just introduced himself and told me he’s really looking forward to getting me over there and meeting me”.

Rodas’ familiarity with Texas is more than skin deep. He understands the advantages of playing in Texas’ defense, “I know they want their guys to get up field and get after the quarterback. It’s a great defense to showcase your athleticism”. That’s a departure from the 2-gap scheme he plays in at St. Francis De Sales in Columbus, where he’s essentially asked to keep his linebackers clean – which he does quite well.

Following his trip to Texas on Friday, he plans to take a trip over to College Station to visit the Aggies.

So far, he’s taken a number of unofficial visits which include Michigan, Penn State and numerous trips to Penn State. He holds offers from all three programs. He said Ohio State has recruited him but as he put it, “Ohio State wants to offer in-state guys but they want to know you’re going to commit and I don’t want to do that”.

Rodas has also taken one official visit which was to Wisconsin.

He says if an offer from Texas comes, he will absolutely add them to his list of upcoming official visits which also includes Penn State and Michigan.

There’s no doubt Rodas loves the great state and if an offer comes, while I don’t see him pulling the trigger this weekend, I could see Texas moving into pole position.

Quick Hitter | Another Visitor From Cali
– Will Baizer
– Notre Dame (Sherman Oaks) ATH Mckel Broussard has been in Austin for a while now. While he was there the Texas staff watched his film and asked him to meet with them today. While he was there he met with the coaches, toured the campus and facilities, and watched h-back film with the coaches. They are pitching using him in a role a la Romance Taylor.

His father is a coach for the UCLA basketball team and he’s lived in a lot of places. While I wouldn’t say Texas is where he is from, it is definitely one of the places he calls home. His grandparents are from Houston, he spends a lot of time there and Austin as well, and he plays on the KB3 7v7 team (same team as Elijah Higgins, Garrett Wilson, and a whole bunch of other Texas boys).

He will be participating in the camp Friday, and he will be one of the guys getting the red carpet treatment. I’ll be surprised if Texas offers him right out the gate because he’s new on their scene and they have one or two other guys ahead of him.

Edited by Machinator
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